Branch
by RenkonNairu
Summary: -Sequel to "Growth"- Summer is underway. Devlin's on a road trip with his father and Kenny went to spend the vacation with his mother. It a time for making new friends -or new enemies. Either way, its an opportunity to branch out of their comfort zones.
1. Lightstar and Sigil

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

(A/N: This fic is a sequel to one of my other Ben 10 fics, "Growth". Which is in turn a sequel to one of my other Ben 10 fics, "Roots", which is in turn a sequel to my first Ben 10 fic, "Thorns". I do recommend reading at least one of them first as they all take place along a fanon AU and are a mix of several different series canons. It will make much more sense to you if you read them in order. However, each story is also its own self-contained adventure -rather like episodes in a series. So you can still pick and choose ones to read and -hopefully- not be _too_ confused. Anyway, you have been warned. Enjoy!)

Branch

Prologue: Lightstar and Sigil

 _Sixteen Years Ago…_

Her study was completely trashed.

Books of magic and of power thrown all over the floor. The drawers of her desk all pulled out. Totems and fetishes knocked over. Bottle and jars smashed on the floor.

A window was open. It didn't take much brain power to figure out that, that was how the intruder had entered. The question was, where had the intruder gone? No one had been seen exiting the suit. That meant that he or she had either left back out the window, or was still hiding somewhere in the office.

She cast a spell of revealing.

"No need for that, Charmcaster." A figure that, only a moment ago was invisible, materialized by her shoulder. "I was actually just about to ask you something."

She spun around in alarm, long silver hair whipping like a curtain around her shoulders. An attack spell on her lips, that sent an orb of pure mana straight center for his chest. But the figure just went invisible again, dematerializing so that the attack passed right through. Leaving him completely unharmed.

This time, when the intruder reappeared, she took a moment to study him. Taking a step back, and looking him up and down.

A shape that was mostly human -or of late had been mostly human. Tall, with long dark hair. But where humans usually have two symmetrical eyes, he had three asymmetrical ones. In place of one arm was a Galvanic Mechamorph limb of adaptable shape. A Kineceleran tail above Loboan legs. Talpaedan armor and Geochelone Aerio cavities in the chest. Amperi tentacles and Necrofriggian wings.

Charmcaster had never seen anything like him before. But to spite that, he still seemed oddly familiar. She squinted at him a moment longer. Then her eyes went wide with recognition. "Kevin? Kevin Levin?"

"I need the Alpha Rune." He informed her flatly. "Where is it? I know you don't wear it anymore since it makes you crazier than me. So you must have hidden it. Where?"

Kevin Levin here to steal the Alpha Rune was alarming. But more alarming than that was him being in Ledgerdomain at all. Kevin was no sorcerer. He couldn't use mana and so couldn't open the Door to Anywhere. That meant he had to have help in getting here. Since it was Kevin, the obvious answer to that question would be his wife, little Gwenny Tennyson. But Charmcaster just couldn't imagine the soft-hearted little champion of Love and Light helping him break into her home to steal the pillar of her world. The fact that Gwendolyn and Charmcaster had made their peace aside, Gwenny knew how important the Rune was to Ledgerdomain. She would not be party to its theft.

So, someone else had to help Kevin get here.

There was only one other person she could think of whom might have a motive. "You couldn't have come here on your own and last I saw little Gwenny she was bloated with your whelp and half-dead. That leaves my charmingly two-faced ex-husband. Where is he?"

"Collecting what _he_ came here for." Was Kevin's reply, delivered as if the information should have been obvious to her.

Forgetting the mutated and misshapen Osmosian in front of her, Charmcaster dashed from the room.

There were plenty of reasons her ex-husband would want access back into Ledgerdomain. For one, the very air of the place was permitted with mana -with magical power- that he could absorb straight through his skin. Like sitting in a marinade of energy. He could draw power just sitting on his ass doing nothing. For another, there was her father's library of magical texts. A cashe of knowledge and information spanning the ages. Or, Charmcaster supposed, he could have come for her too. But if that were the case, than it would have been him waiting for her in her study and not Kevin Levin. That left only one other thing high might have come for.

 _Two_ others he might have come for.

The most precious two in all of Ledgerdomain.

Charmcaster burst through the nursery doors, hoping that her twins were still asleep in their beds. Oblivious to and unaffected by the intruders.

That was not the case.

The two Stone Creatures Charmcaster assigned as guards for her children were reduced to nothing more than piles of rubble. Horrified, she looked to her children.

Standing between the two cribs, their daughter already in his arms, stood Charmcaster's ex-husband. His mask was off, and it looked like he'd already absorbed a fair amount of the realm's mana -if his handsome face was any indiction. High cheekbones and a square chin, over all chiseled features. Smooth skin. Thick and shining golden hair. Vibrant blue eyes that gazed at their daughter with something that fell just short of 'affection'. Something more in alignment with possessive kinship.

From the other crib, their son stood on his chubby baby legs, gripping the wooden bars to hold himself up. He gazed up at the man holding his twin sister. Neither of Charmcaster's children had ever seen their father before. She wouldn't allow it.

"Michael!" Charmcaster barked, putting all of her 'Queen of Ledgerdomain' authority into her voice. "Put my daughter down and step away."

"You mean _my_ daughter." He grinned at her. Lifting the girl's arm, he faced her hand to her mother so that Charmcaster could clearly see the tiny little maw there. A round hole with teeth, not unlike that of a leech or a lamprey. "She does seem to take after me more than you, don't you agree, Beautiful?"

"That doesn't mean a damn thing." Charmcaster growled, coming into the room. Placing herself between her son, still in his crib, and Michael. Just in case he decided to make a grab for that child as well. "She's a year old. She might have inherited your mutation, but that doesn't mean she'll be like you."

"To dare to dream…" He muttered. Then turning to the girl in his arms cooed. "Your mommy's living in a fantasy land."

"No. I'm the _Queen_ of a fantasy land!" Charmcaster snarled.

She let loose a wave of mana. Not a spell, just raw primal power in an attack aimed at the man holding her baby girl. Michael stumbled backwards, dropping the girl. Charmcaster darted forward to catch her baby, throwing herself on the floor to cushion her daughter's fall. Painfully bashing her shoulder on the stone tiles. She was hurt, but the child was unharmed.

Michael climbed to his feet, groaning. "Levin was supposed to keep you distracted."

"Sorry, but Kevin's to busy trying to steal the- the-" Crap!

The moment she heard that Michael was here to kidnap her children, her mind just completely dropped everything else. Her instincts as a mother completely overriding everything else. But she still had responsibilities as the ruler of Ledgerdomain and as such had a responsibility to protect the realm and all those that lived in it. The Alpha Rune was the pillar of this world. If Kevin took it, the world would slowly fall into a mana drought and die…

Two equally compelling impulses battled inside her. The instincts of a mother who had to protect her children from a dangerous predator, and the responsibilities of a ruler who had to do what was best for her domain. Charmcaster clutched her daughter to her and glared dangerously at Michael. Paralyzed by indecision.

The man recovered from her raw and unfocused attack, and took a step towards her.

The hand that wasn't holding her daughter balled into a fist, glowing with star sapphire power.

But before either one could do anything, the ceiling caved in on them. Not actually making a conscious decision, just acing on impulse, Michael dove forward. Grabbing their son from the crib before any stone or support beams could fall on him. Michael flattened himself over Charmcaster and their children. Shielding them from the falling debris in an uncharacteristic moment of selflessness.

Kevin stood there when the dust cleared. The Alpha Rune clutched in his misshapen and mutated paw.

"Thanks for distracting Charmcaster for me, Darkstar." He grinned a razor-toothed grin.

And Kevin had said that he was the one that would keep Charmcaster distracted for _him_. Michael didn't know why he thought he could trust the Osmosian this time. The two of the never could team up without some, seemingly obligatory, double-cross shenanigans.

Now Kevin had the Alpha Rune. One quarter of the Map of Infinity. While all Michael got was… covered in dust.

He got what he came for, Kevin had no other reason to hang around, and now that he had the Rune, he didn't need Michael to open the Door to Anywhere for him. Accessing the power of the Alpha Rune, the Osmosian opened a portal for himself. Without even the curtesy of a maniacal villain laugh to punctuate his exit. He just left.

Michael and Charmcaster laid on the floor for a few moments after that.

She could already feel the ebb and flow of the power currents in Ledgerdomain changing. All power waxed and wained, and without the Alpha Rune, Ledgerdomain's power was already waining.

"Michael…" She muttered, still holding her daughter to her.

"Yeah, Beautiful?"

"Get off me!" WIth her free arm, she pushed him away.

Holding their son in one arm, Michael climbed to his feet. Realized a little to late that some of the falling debris had crashed onto his own legs, and went clattering back down to the floor. Quickly wrapping his free arm about the boy in his arms to try and buffer the fall for the baby.

For a moment, Charmcaster looked unaffected by his plight. He certainly gave her plenty of reasons over the years to enjoy the sight on him in pain. But he had saved their son and shielder her and her daughter when Kevin burst in. For that, at least, she could show him a little compassion. At least the same amount of compassion he showed by protecting her and her children.

Heaving a sigh, Charmcaster shifted their daughter to her other side and knelt beside Michael. "Hold still. I know a few healing spells. But don't get comfortable! You're still banished."

"Good luck controlling her when she's older without my help."

"I'll be able to handle my children just fine without you." Charmcaster vowed.

"Say that again when she's older and finds a nice, juicy, slice of Anodite to take a bite out of."

…


	2. Traditional Road Trip

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter One: Traditional Road Trip

 _Present Day…_

The storage space looked like all the others Kevin had taken him to over the course of their summer road trip. A corrugated steel door with a plain and unassuming padlock.

This was the eleventh storage space Kevin had dragged him to on their trip and Devlin was beginning to suspect that this trip wasn't so much an attempt at father-son bonding, but instead a pretext for Kevin to assess what assets he still had (if any) after his sixteen year incarceration in the Null Void.

"I'm amazed its even still here." Devlin commented -grumbled really. Arms crossed over his chest, glaring at the locked storage space and not at his father. "Shouldn't all your stuff have been thrown out and this unit rented to someone else by now? I mean its been sixteen years!"

"Yeah…" Kevin shrugged. "But this place cuts special deals for long-term clients who pay in large wads of cash. Before I left on my rampage I bought a twenty year lease on the space. Paid in full upfront -Taydenite and cash." He examined the padlock for a moment. Then looked up at the corrugated steel. "Hey, phase through the door for me."

"What! Why?"

That was another thing. Over the course of their 'father-son bonding trip' Kevin insisted Devlin practice his new power. Unlike his father, the young Osmosian did not have the ability to absorb and copy mater. He couldn't make armor for himself out of metal or stone. But Devlin could do something else. Something Kevin could never do and honestly never even would have thought of before his son did it by accident. Devlin could walk through walls. The boy discovered this ability by accident while he was trying to absorb matter instead. He ended up putting half his arm through his school locker before he realized what he was doing.

Servantis did say that all Osmosians had different powers. Mater could pass through Kevin, and Devlin could pass through mater.

"Its been sixteen years." Kevin informed him as if this was new information. "I don't have the key anymore."

For a moment it looked as if his son was going to argue the matter further. But instead he grumbled some rather unkind four letter words under his breath and took his gloves off. "You're such an asshole."

"Oh, yes. Encouraging you to develop your talents makes me an asshole." Kevin huffed in response.

"Shut-up. I'm concentrating."

Placing his bare hands on the corrugated steel, Devlin exhaled. Getting a feel for the mater he was about to pass through. Back when Kevin was still trying to teach him how to absorb mater, he explained how man-made substances like alloys, glasses, or plastics were easier to absorb and manipulate because they had fewer impurities in them. That held true for passing through substances as well. Steel was an alloy or iron and carbon, but unlike its base elements it carried fewer impurities -less foreign matter for Devlin to process as he passed through it.

His hands passed through the steel first. Then his arms. Leaning forward, Devlin took a step and his whole body passed through the corrugated metal door. The boy now stood in total darkness, surrounded by -what he assumed- were boxes.

"Alright. I'm through." He pulled out his cell phone and used it as a flashlight to find something that might release the door from the inside. It was only now, however, standing in the dark with nothing but his phone for light, that he realized that even if there was some version of a safety release for the door inside the space, it wouldn't mean a damn thing with the padlock on the outside.

No sooner had this thought occurred to him, however, than the door opened. Rolling up into the ceiling to reveal Kevin standing there, his hand covered in metal up to the wrist and one finger morphed into the shape of a key.

"You're getting faster at passing through stuff." The older man smiled at him, proud of his son. "I actually never had the key. I've always just used my finger."

"Gawd, you're such an asshole!" Devlin threw his arms up in frustration and kicked the nearest box to him.

Kevin rushed forward. "Carful! Carful! I don't remember what's in these!"

The younger man scoffed. So what if Kevin was afraid he might accidentally break some twenty-year-old crap. "Jeez, its not like its gonna blow up."

"Maybe." Kevin informed him in all seriousness. "I did used to sell higher-level technology, weapons, munitions, and explosives. You can't just go around kicking unmarked boxes in a storage locker I haven't been inside in over a decade."

Devlin sucked in a breath as if to prepare himself to deliver a sanctimonious speech about selling illegal, contraband, and highly dangerous merchandise. The younger man never did approve of his father's more unsavory occupations and sources of income. It was a rather large source of contention between them when Kevin was first released from the Null Void several months ago. But instead all the boy did was turn his attention back to his phone.

"I'm telling Mom!" And he hammed out a quick text.

"Really?" Kevin raised an eyebrow. Devlin liked to act controlled and mature most of the time, but the Osmosian was still just a teenager and what did teenagers do when all other strategies failed? They went and cried to their parents -usually their favorite parent, which in Devlin's case was Gwen.

The two men glared at each other until the boy's phone vibrated with her reply.

 _'well then dont kick things n your dads storage. glad u r having fun. ttyl.'_

"Well, what'd she say?" Asked the older man.

Flushing with irritation, Devlin snarled, "She said if I find anything illegal I should turn you in."

Sure she did. Kevin sighed. "Alright. Have fun with that."

He turned his attention to going through the boxes closest to him. The first one was innocent enough, it just contained bottles of absinth -which was perfectly legal in 2017 (provided you were over the age of 21). The second two boxes were of much the same. Three cases of absinth.

"What is all this?" Devlin asked.

Kevin thought for a moment. What was he saving so much hard liquor that occasionally caused hallucinations for? Must be some crazy party he was planning. "I think… I think it was going to be the 'white wine' option at my wedding."

His wedding to Gwen that they were in the middle of planning before Devlin happened. The wedding that never happened because Devlin happened.

"For the love of crap, _why_?"

Kevin shrugged. "To piss off my mother-in-law mostly. Uh, soon to be mother-in-law. This may come as a shock to you-" sarcasm "-but Natalie didn't much care for your mother marrying a dirty Plumber on the take and half-alien arms dealer."

"Oh." The boy said without inflection, then paused. "No, I guess she wouldn't."

"I bet she has some things to say about my being out of the Void and back with your mom now." Continued the older man.

"I wouldn't know." Devlin informed him. "I never met her."

That made Kevin pause in his examination of the case he was about to open and look up at his son startled. "She's not... dead is she? Gwen never said anything- If I'd known…"

"Oh, no, no. She's not dead!" The younger man quickly assured him. "She just does't talk to us. I think Uncle Ken is the only one who's still in contact with her. Mom doesn't talk about it but, uh, I uh, but I think I might have been the reason she left. Her divorce with Grandpa Frank did sorta happen around that time…"

The knee jerk reaction of any adult whenever a child tried to claim responsibility for the problems of adults was to deny it. Tell them that of course it wasn't his fault. It couldn't be. He was just an infant at the time. Aside from simply just existing, there was nothing Devlin could have done to drive his grandmother away. But then Kevin remembered how Natalie Tennyson never did seem very comfortable with the extraterrestrial aspects of the family she had married into. The tension between herself and her own mother-in-law, the Anodite Verdona. His disapproval of her daughter dating him. Her insistence that 'polite people don't glow in the dark'. In hind sight, it was really just a matter of time before she had all that she could take and left.

Devlin's birth and his condition upon that birth might not have been the only reason why Natalie left, but he certainly would have been the catalyst. The final straw that broke the backbone of her tolerance.

"Devlin…" Kevin began slowly. "Your grandmother… had a very conservative upbringing. It would have been a huge adjustment for hear marrying into a- -a unique family like the Tennysons. Its not your fault she left."

Saying nothing, the boy looked at his surroundings. At anything in the room but his father. He pulled out an old brief case and started fiddling with the locks. "No, its not my fault. Its never my fault. Right. Not my fault my grandmother left, and not my fault that Kenny won't talk to me anymore."

Ah… yes. Kenny…

Devlin's cousin whom he grew up with as a brother thanks to Kevin's absence.

Prior to a few months ago, Devlin and Kenny were inseparable. Closer than brothers, actually. Best friends so close that, to an outsider, their friendship might seem to be of a different nature entirely.

At least, that was what they were like up until a particularly complicated incident involving a conspiracy from Kevin's own past. It was a long story involving altered memories, Plumbers cover-ups, alien experiments, hybrids, kidnapped children, and mind control. But the defining events that lead to the boys' current estrangement occurred when Devlin absorbed Kenny's faux-Omnitrix, went mad with power, and trued to absorb Kenny himself. So intend was Devlin on absorbing his cousin, that he chased the younger boy all over the Rooters base, ignoring other prey like his Anodite mother, in order to get to the helpless Omnitrix wielder.

If Kevin hadn't stepped in and saved the boy, he was fairly certain that Devlin wouldn't be estranged from his cousin right now. He wouldn't have a cousin any more to be estranged from.

They eventually subdued Devlin and drained him of the excess Omnitrix energy, reverting him back to his normal self. But, understandably, Kenny had some trouble trusting the older boy after that. So much so that he insisted they take separate vacations over the summer. Kenny going to his mother, Ben's first wife, Kai Green, and Devlin going on a road trip with his father.

Devlin had tried calling and texting his cousin several times over the course of the summer. But, thus far, his attempts to bridge the gap between them went unreciprocated by the younger boy.

Kevin sighed.

"Look. Devlin. Up until recently, you and that kid have lead very sheltered lives." He began, not really sure if he was helping or just exasperating things. "Yeah, you got bullied in school a little, but that's a normal kid problem. Yeah, Tennyson might have let you and Tiny-Tennyson tag along on small missions, but neither of you were ever in any real danger. You're soft. And Kenny's soft. That thing with Servantis… that was probably the first time that kid has ever had to face real danger."

"See?" Devlin snapped at his father, turning his head so suddenly his ponytail almost whipped his cheek. "Even you think I'm a danger to Kenny."

"You are far less dangerous to that kid than I am to his father." Kevin growled -and Kevin and Ben were still fairly good friends. "But that is not my point. My point is that Kenneth Middlename Tennyson is a cream-puff. His best friend tries to murder him a little bit and he goes and runs to his mommy. He has no idea how to handle _real_ danger. Don't get me wrong, I'm not absolving you of guilt. You did your fair share of screwing things up. But that doesn't change the fact that he's handling this badly."

To avoid eye contact, Devlin went back to studying the briefcase in his hands. After several moments of tense silence, he said, " _Ata'halne_."

"What?" Kevin blinked at him, not comprehending.

"Kenny's middle name. Its Ata'halne." Devlin explained as he popped the latches on the case. "Aunt Kai wanted him to have a Navajo name. -What's this?"

Seemingly forgetting his cousin for the moment, Devlin withdrew from the briefcase a stack of old US one hundred dollar bills. They were not the only old currency in the case. There were also Euros, British pounds, yen, and Chinese renminbi.

"Oh, that. That's money." Kevin said as if it didn't matter, and in fact, it probably didn't. "Its all worthless now -except maybe to a museum. I liked to keep a small stash here and there in case your mother and I might need it. You never know just when a case of non-sequential, unmarked bills might come in handy."

"Gawd! How did you ever get my mother to fall for you?" Devlin snapped the case shut and slid it off the box it was sitting on.

Kevin only shrugged. "She knew that she'd always be taken care of. I might not always follow the letter of the law, but I do always provide for myself and mine." A pause. "I bought your grandmother's house for her when I was only sixteen -put it all in her name, of course, since I was a minor at the time."

"My life would have been so different if you'd been around." And Devlin was about to imagine himself growing up with his father. Enjoying a childhood spoiled by the income of over a dozen less than legal enterprises. All the trappings of a mafia prince, minus the gang of armed thugs. But Devlin halted the fantasy before it could fully take root in his mind. He was training to become a Plumber in order to distance himself from his father. To prove how different from the man he really was.

Nodding, Kevin agreed. "You certainly wouldn't be as soft as you are now."

"Come again?"

"Oh, come on, Devlin. You're just as much of a cream-puff as Tennyson's kid." Huffed the older Osmosian. "Gwen sheltered you just as much as Ben sheltered Kenny."

"I'm not all that sheltered." The boy grumbled, opening the box in front of him and pulling out a disused laser lance with its power pack removed. He threw the old and antiquated weapon back in the box and moved it aside as well. Opening the next on in the stack. "I've suffered."

"Anyone who says they've suffered hasn't really suffered." Kevin informed him, casual, nonchalantly. "People who've suffered don't feel comfortable talking about their suffering. 'Specially not as casually as you do."

"Oh. And you would know, would you?" The boy snapped back without thinking.

Kevin just turned to face him. Exhaling slowly, he glared at his son. Yes. Kevin knew suffering. From his early childhood, he knew suffering.

Having powers he himself didn't fully understand, his mother didn't quite know what to do with him. He suffered violent mood swings when absorbing energy, mood swings that prompted to wreck and run from his childhood home. Living on the streets from the ages of nine to eleven. Horribly mutated and disfigured by an alien divide he didn't fully understand. Trapped in the Null Void alongside a war-monger and intergalactic terror as a child. Yes. Kevin has suffer in his life. Much of it before he even entered his teens. Devlin didn't understand.

He spent those same formative years bundled up in the domestic levels of the Plumbers Headquarters in Bellwood. Under the carful watch and protection of his mother, a powerful Anodite and sorceress, who understood him and his powers. And Magister Ben Tennyson, Hero of the Universe and Wielder of the Omnitrix, whom also understood Devlin and his powers. He always had a roof over his head, clothes on his back, and food in his belly. He didn't understand true hunger, cold, or a lack of belonging. Devlin was sheltered.

"You wouldn't understand."

"No. I don't think I will." Agreed the younger man. "We're to different. Not like normal fathers and sons."

Kevin had to give an ironic laugh at that. "And what's your basis of comparison? What normal fathers and sons do you know? Tennyson and your cousin? They might get along better than us, but I've been in your life a little short of three months now, and I'm pretty sure I know you better than Tennyson knows the boy he's raised for the past fifteen years."

Devlin's hands on the box in front of him stilled. He turned back to face his father. "You know too, don't you?" He asked. "At the Rooters base, you also absorbed an Omnitrix. You saw him."

"I see lots of things." The older man informed him. "One of the reasons I was so successful in all of my -many- professions was my discretion. You and Tiny-Tennyson didn't seem to be talking about it, I didn't see a reason to bring it up."

Once again, Devlin looked away. Not meeting his father's eye. "Kenny and I used to tell each other everything, you know. I know that his first crush was Bumblebee from Teen Titans, and he knows that my first crush was- -uh, also a fictional character. I would have thought that he'd tell me he was an Anodite. I mean, yeah, I'm jealous. But I'm more bothered by the fact that he felt the need to hide it from me _before_ I tried to kill him."

Heaving yet another sigh, Kevin said, "Honestly, I'm not sure he even knows."

"What do you mean?" Devlin blinked, once again looking at the older man.

"Well, your mother came into her powers when she was ten." He began. "But for most of her young life, she didn't really know what they meant. She thought it was all just magic and she was uncommonly gifted. Even after all of her alien encounters and battles, and me flat out _telling_ her she must have alien blood. She still insisted 'magic' and nothing more. It wasn't until she met her grandmother -your great-grandmother, Verdona- that she realized her 'magic' was just a by-product of being a being of pure energy existing within a mortal body."

He closed the case he was looking through and pushed it to the side. Examining the contents of the crate under it instead.

"Kenny never had the opportunity to discover his powers early like your mother did." Kevin continued. "Tennyson gave him a copy of one of the early versions of his Omnitrix and so the kid never had reason or opportunity to explore or develop any other talents he might have. With no reason to explore or develop his abilities, we have no reason to assume he even knows that he has them."

"So, Kenny wasn't lying to me?" Devlin asked. "I shouldn't be upset?"

"I'm not gonna tell you how you should or shouldn't feel." His father informed him. "You wanna be pissy and upset, be pissy and upset. Its certainly what I'm used to you being since I got out of the Void. But in between moaning and groaning about how unfair life is for you, someone should tell the kid what he is."

"Why?" The younger man blinked. "If he can't access his powers, what point would there be in him knowing?"

"To put him on his guard." Kevin said flatly. "Anodites are prey for a very unique type of predator. They're rare. But that does't make them any less dangerous -and I'm not just talking about Osmosians like you and me. There are other things that feed off energy. An Anodite who doesn't know he's an Anodite is at a disadvantage."

"How can I tell him when he won't even talk to me?"

"I imagine you can figure that out yourself when you see him." The older man dusted off his pants and moved to a larger crate off to the side. "Green's doing a dig on Albright's farm, right? That's on the way back to Bellwood and I was already thinking of stopping there for a night or two. Since Tiny-Tennyson won't answer your calls, you can confront him in person and you don't even have to wait until summers end." Kevin opened the final crate he had been examining. "Ah-ha! Found it!"

The Osmosian started shifting around packing peanuts until he was able to withdraw a vintage model Tetramand engine block.

"Is that a…" Devlin gaped wide-eyed at the alien tech. There was an almost identical one in his car. The car he had unknowingly inherited from Kevin -the car they were currently driving on their Summer Road were virtually indestructible. But they were also almost exclusively used by Tetramand, and Tetramand _only_. Devlin imagined his father somehow managed to either con or murder his hands onto the one currently in the car. Devlin didn't even want to imagine how his father might have gotten his hands on a second one. Yet, he still found himself asking, "How in the heck did you get a hold of another one of those!?"

The older man turned to grin at him. "Oh, it was actually a lot easier than what I had to do to get the first one. Ya see, Tennyson was sort of engaged to this Tetramand princess and, well, obviously he didn't want to go through with it. But Tetramand have some very strict rules about breaking off engagements. I managed to find a loophole in one of their crazy traditions that would let Tennyson go free and still satisfy his would-be in-laws. As a reward, they gave me this."

He stroked the alien tech affectionately and smiled a silent laugh at some private joke.

"What was the loophole?" Asked the younger man, actually and genuinely curious about one of his father's stories for once. This might actually be a good anecdote to share with his Cultural Sensitivity class back at the Academy.

"Sorry. Con man-client privilege." Kevin shook his head. "Like I said, one of the things that made me so successful was my discretion. Now lets get going. All this dust in here is making my eyes itch."

"We're going to see Kenny?"

"Yes. I'll take you to see Kenny."

…


	3. Meeting New People

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Two: Meeting New People

If everyone was jumping off a bridge, would you do it too?

Kenny's answer to that question was -apparently- ' _yes_ '.

"Look out below!"

The young Omnitrix wielder climbed over the -completely ineffective- safety railing of the Ugly Creek bridge and jumped feet first into the water below.

It was a traditional 'country swimming hole'. Except that it wasn't a hole, it was a bend in the creek where the current slowed to make swimming safer, and the creek bed deepend to make jumping in it less suicidal. In place of the, previously thought to be obligatory, swinging rope there was instead the bridge. A stretch of road suspended no more than six feet over the water's surface. There was no real danger in jumping off the bridge -hence why everyone did it.

Kenny resurfaced, shaking water from his eyes. He turned to the bank and smiled at Ally -and was disappointed to find her laying on her belly, her back to him, paying more attention to her phone than to him.

Ally didn't really go swimming. At least, not for fun and leisure. She cited not wanting to get the driver's seat of her truck wet when they were done, as a reason. But Kenny wondered if her mingled Pyronite-human heritage made being in the water for extended periods of time uncomfortable. At least, when she was in her actual Pyronite form, water did certainly seem to subdue her.

Climbing out of the water, Kenny crossed the bank to her.

Reclining on a towel thrown over the sandy bank. She lay on her belly, wearing a white 2-piece swim suit that contrasted nicely with her naturally dark complexion. Playing a game on her phone while enjoying the heat of the sun on her back. And it was a very nice back. With wonderfully sculpted shoulders, a delicate curve to her spine, leading down to the swell of her sumptuous, round-

"Could you please stop openly leering at me." Ally rolled over and pulled her shades down to glare at him from over the glasses rim. "Not only is it inappropriate, but you're also not subtle. Like, at all. Anyone besides me would punch you in the gnads."

"I wasn't ' _leering_ '!" Kenny was quick to deny -he was totally leering at her. "I was just, uh… checking you for mosquitos."

"Right…" She rolled her eyes, not even entertaining his hollow excuse for even a moment. Pushing her sun shades back up the bridge of her nose, Ally stood and pulled on a summer shift. Just a light little piece of fabric to cover her swimsuit so that she could go out in public without being stopped for indecent exposure. "Well, if you're done, we can head back home. I'm sure your mom would love it if you helped with her dig. Free labor and all."

"That's what her interns are for." Kenny groaned.

After fifteen years of being the son of an archeologist that specialized in pre-colonial studies, Kenny got real tired real quick of digging in the dirt for chipped arrowheads and broken pots. Yes, it was part of his history, and yes, for that reason Kenny had an adequately fair share of respect for his mother and her profession. But that didn't mean he wanted to down in the dirt with tiny brushes and slowly scrape away over five hundred years worth of natural erosion. All under the hot sun.

"How about we go into town instead." He suggested. "We could get ice cream, or something."

"Only if you're buying." Ally agreed.

Kenny threw a t-shirt on over his wet swimming trunks. "Okay. Fine."

Ally picked up the towel she'd been laying on and threw it over the passenger seat of her truck before Kenny could sit down. The last thing she wanted was mildew in her upholstery or mold under the seats. Her truck might be old, but Ally took very good care of it. She wasn't as manic about the love and care of her vehicle as Devlin was, but the similarity was just enough to remind Kenny of his older cousin.

"Have you spoken to Devlin at all this summer?" The boy asked.

"We text every now and again." Ally disengaged the parking break and backed away from the riverbank, turning the car around when they got back up to the road proper. "Apparently, Kevin's been dragging him all over the continent looking through stuff he used to sell that used to be illegal -and some that still is illegal."

Kenny snorted, imagining his cousin's reaction to that. "Aw... Dev must be hating every minute of it."

"I don't think so..." Ally admitted slowly, turning off the narrow country road and onto the larger paved highway that lead into town. "I mean, yeah, every thing he says is phrased like a complaint. But I think he's actually kinda having a fun time -or, an _interesting_ time, at least. You can't deny that Kevin 11,000 is an interesting person to be around."

Ally had an uncommonly positive opinion of Kevin E. Levin ever since he -essentially- rescued her from a nasty bit of mind-control and manipulation. It was an uncommon opinion, but not a unique one. Kenny also had a rather high opinion of Kevin. After all, it was Kevin who saved him from Devlin after the older boy absorbed Kenny's faux-Omnitrix, went crazy, and tried to kill him.

"I imagine a road trip with Kevin would have been much more interesting than spending the summer listening to your dad and my mother talk about how your farm used to be Muskogean teritory, and how important this site is, and how great your dad is for letting her dig on his land, yada, yada, yada."

"I see you don't share your mother's enthusiasm for your history."

"We're Navajo, not Muskogean." Kenny reminded her. "Totally different tribes from near-opposite sides of the continent. But I don't wanna talk about my mom's dig. We hear enough of it back at the house." He paused. Unsure if he actually wanted to know what he was about to ask or not. Then he forged on ahead anyway because forethought was never Kenny's strong suit. "Has Devlin said anything about me?"

Ally paused, and Kenny wasn't sure if it was because the sudden subject change threw her, or she just didn't want to answer his question.

Finally, she said, "He says he's tried messaging you too. Why ask me? Why not just talk to him yourself?"

This time, the pause before the boy answered lasted longer. One... two... three beats before he finally said, "Dev and I are going through a bit of a rough patch right now, and- -and I don't really know what to say to him anymore."

She rolled her eyes at him and pulled into a parking spot in the town square. "Jeez, its really starting to sound like two you aren't so much cousins getting over a fight as you are boyfriends going through a lovers quarrel."

Kenny knew -prior to their estrangement- what he and Devlin must have appeared like to other people. They were far to close for cousins, even just a little to close for actual brothers as well. Always hanging around each other. Never seeming to have girlfriends. Two guys who were _always_ together. Kenny knew what they whispered about them in the halls at school. Hell! Even Kevin confessed thinking much the some thing to him a little bit before the summer began.

But he never would have expected to hear it from Ally. She knew them to well.

Sure, Devlin was, well, Devlin. But Ally knew perfectly well where his tastes lay.

"That is _not_ true, and you know it!" He snapped at her, uncharacteristically defensive.

"I know. I know." She wave him off, unconcerned as she turned off the engine and got out of the car. "Devlin's not your type. You prefer Storm from X-Men, or Uhura from Star Trek: TOS. You have a very distinct type, Kenny, and Devlin is not it."

She did not comment that she fit his type perfectly. She wouldn't want to spoil their friendship and create unnecessary tension between them by bringing this fact to Kenny's attention. Instead, she leaned against the truck and watched a pair of obvious tourist argue over a map while she waited for her companion to remember he was treating her to ice cream and get out of the truck.

Having tourists wasn't out of the ordinary for the town. Although, the word 'tourist' was a bit of a misnomer. 'Drunk spring breakers lost on their bad idea road trips' would have been a far more accurate term for the type of 'tourism' her small rural town got. But, for some reason, the town council thought that might be rude and hurt business. So they were 'tourists'. Although, these 'tourists' didn't quite fit the 'drunk spring breakers lost on their bad idea road trips' either. There were a lot of collage students poring into town, offering their souls in exchange for intern hours under Dr. Green -Kenny's mom. But this pair didn't quite fit that label either.

They were a bit to young to be collage students for starters. Closer to her and Kenny's age -maybe a year or two older. Dressed in funny clothes. The boy wearing a dark purple tunic with the sleeves rolled up to offer some relief from the summer heat, this silver-white hair sticking to the sides of his head from sweat. The girl wearing a midnight blue dress -sleeveless, she must be the smart one of the pair- with the skirt cut in a weird way to give it a sort of 'gothic ballerina' look -which was weird because she had some of the brightest yellow-blond hair Ally had ever seen and one doesn't usually find goth kids with bright blond hair.

Overall, the looked like they'd just walked out of a fantasy convention.

Kenny finally tumbled out of the truck. "I'm still wet."

"Well, that's your own fault for going swimming in the first place." She scoffed, unconcerned, and crossed the square to the ice cream parlor.

Ally got a single scoop cone of strawberry, while Kenny -in classic Tennyson fashion- ordered more than he could possible eat and got three scoops (chocolate, caramel, and coffee) with nuts on top.

"There is no way you're gonna be able to finish all that before it melts all over you." Ally informed him. If Devlin were here, he might have been able to talk the younger boy into a more conservative selection. The Osmosian had a way with his cousin that Ally had not yet mastered. But Devlin wasn't here and so any attempts made to reason with the young Omnitrix wielder went mostly ignored and ineffective. There wasn't much Ally could do except to announce, "We are _not_ eating these in my truck."

The last thing she needed was Kenny melting dairy all over her seat and dashboard. If the smell of rotten milk didn't drive her insane, then the ants it would inevitably attract would. Sometimes she wondered how Devlin managed to put up with his cousin. The Osmosain loved his car more than Ally loved her truck and Kenny tended to be a messy passenger.

The odd couple was still there when Ally and Kenny exited the ice cream parlor and started walking the square as they ate.

Sighing, more to herself than for Kenny's benefit, she suggested, "Should we go over and see if they need any help?"

"Who?" Kenny looked up from his ice cream, completely oblivious to the only other two pedestrians in the square.

"The goth fantasy cosplayers that look lost." She indicated by turning her chin up at them -because it was rude to point.

Kenny looked in the direction she indicated, finally seeing the out of place looking pair. "Oh, hey! They look like they're from Ledgerdomain!"

"What the kriff is Ledgerdomain?" Ally blinked at him. "And if I don't know about it, how in the world do you know about it?"

"I actually don't know what it is." He confessed. "But Aunt Gwendolyn works with people and creatures from there a lot. Its some magic thing, which is why they're under the Magical Control and Regulation Bureau's jurisdiction. Plumbers don't deal with them much anymore, so they wouldn't teach us about them in the Weekend Academy. But that's how the people I've seen Aunt Gwendolyn work with dress. Like they walked out of a CLAMP manga."

"So what is 'Ledgerdomain'? Like a club? A secret society? A company? Some other type of organization?" Ally asked, genuinely curious.

"I think its a place." Kenny suppled, still unsure himself. "If Dev were here, he'd be able to tell us."

"You could call him." The Pyronite girl crossed her arms over her chest. She had no more patience for this little melodrama that Kenny was avoiding playing out between him and his older cousin. "Or text. While you're doing that, I'm gonna go say high to the people from Ledgerdomain."

She finished her ice cream as quickly as she could without giving herself brain-freeze and struck out across the square to the odd couple.

They looked up as she approached and Ally put on her friendliest smile. The one she was perfecting for use as a Plumber before she decided to withdraw from the Academy. Pleasant and calm. Non-threatening. The kind of expression meant to put people at ease.

"Hi there. You two don't look like you're from around here." She mentally kicked herself for allowing her opening line to be such a stereotypical country cliché. 'Not from around here' indeed. She was one to talk. Her and her father both her part alien. "I mean, you look a little lost and I was wondering if there was anything I can do to help."

"We're fine. Thanks." The girl seemed quick to dismiss her.

While at the exact same time, the boy said, "Actually, yes please."

Ally paused a moment while the two glared at each other. It was amusing the reversal of roles. Usually, it was the man who refused to ask directions and the woman whom had no problems admitting they needed help -or so common stereotypes would have you believe. Witnessing the inverse of that was rather refreshing.

After a tense but short silence in which neither of the strangers said anything to each other, the boy eventually turned back to Ally. "Sorry about my sister." He said. "She sometimes forgets her manners when we're away from the- uh, home. When we're away from home. I'm Sigil, and this is Lightstar, and yes, we are lost."

Sigil passed Ally the paper he and his sister had been studying and she saw it was some strange and archaic map. Hand drawn on velum, not parchment or normal paper. The land formations were more or less accurate. It had the rivers, the fields, the hills, etc. But the highways were absent from it, as were many of the roads that connected Coble to the rest of the towns around it -including Bellwood. But the oddest thing about the map was that it had strange runes and characters written all over it. Circles within circles and archaic symbols that looked 'magical' in design.

"Where are you trying to go?" She asked, wondering how anyone could find anything with a map like this.

Sigil gave an awkward, almost apologetic smile. As if he were embarrassed or self-conscious to admit, "We're trying to find Morganstern City."

Ally recognized the name. It was another town not far from Bellwood, just on the opposite side from Coble.

"Why the heck would you wanna go there?" Kenny had finally joined the group, his face covered in the remnants of his ice cream as if he were an unwashed toddler. Seriously, he was fifteen years old. He should know how to use a napkin.

"We have family there." Sigil explained.

"Okay, well, it shouldn't be to hard for you to get there." Ally assured them. "You just take the 40 freeway heading west and it should be the first three exits once you pass the power plant. But you won't get anywhere using a weird map like that." She passed the archaic velum page back to them. "I assume, since you're even using a map in the first place, you don't have cell phones or GPS where you're from? We've got all sorts of maps of the area at my place. I can show you where you need to go."

"We'd appreciate that. Thank you." Sigil nodded.

"C'mon, my truck's this way. You two might have to sit in the bed, though." She apologized. "Not enough room upfront for the four of us."

"I'm sure we can manage." He assured her.

"Sorry, wait. I missed the part where we all became besties." Kenny interrupted. "Who are you again?"

Ally face-palmed with a sigh. "Don't mind him. He's just moody because he and his boyfriend are fighting."

"Devlin is _not_ my boyfriend!"

She ignored him. "Kenny, this is Sigil and his sister Lightstar. Guys, I'm Alicia Albright -but you can call me Ally- and Mr. Grumpy-Pants over here is Kenny Tennyson."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." Sigil shook hands with both of them. Then nudged his sister to do the same. "'Star, be polite."

Reluctantly, as if it were the most inconvenient thing in the world, Lightstar extended her hand to Ally and shook civilly. Then she moved to Kenny. But when their hand's touched there was a spark of power between them. Like static electricity, but strong enough to be seen by those around them.

"What was that?" Sigil asked.

"Maybe something to do with the Omnitrix?" Ally suggested.

She looked to Kenny for a confirmation of this hypothesis, but his attention was on the other girl. Staring at Lightstar with a strange, doe-eyed expression she'd never seen on his face before. It kinda reminded Ally of cartoons where a character was hypnotized by a snake, holding its prey is sway so that it didn't see the strike. That was a ridiculous idea and Ally might have dismissed it outright if it weren't for the fact that Lightstar was staring at Kenny too.

Only while he looked mesmerized, she looked predatory and hungry. Like Kenny was the most appetizing thing she'd ever seen and she wanted nothing more than to take a big bite out of him.

"Your name's Kenny..." She said. "I'm very pleased to meet you."

...


	4. Awkward Reunion

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Three: Awkward Reunion

Devlin yawned and stretched in the passenger seat. "So, its been three months and summers about to be over. At what point are you gonna let me drive?"

"I'm already taking you to see your childish cream-puff cousin." Kevin reminded him, not taking his eyes off the road. "A cousin whom you live with and will see anyway once the summer is over. And still you want more." Shaking his head in mock-disappointment. "You're so spoiled."

"I am not spoiled!" The boy shot back without the slightest hesitation, just as Kevin predicted he would.

Devlin could say what he wanted about this little road trip of theirs, but the older Osmosian was legitimately getting to know his son better. Maybe not in the 'father-son bonding' way that Kevin hoped. It was more along the lines of the way he used to case up a mark, time and observation as opposed to conversation and heart-to-hearts. But at this point, Kevin was willing to take what he could get. One couldn't expect Devlin to warm up to him after only one vacation. Not after he'd been absent from the boy's life for sixteen years.

Kevin suppressed the amused smile that pulled at his lips as he turned off the highway exit and onto the town's surface streets.

Leaning over from the passenger's seat, Devlin pointed to a turn at a fork in the road. "Ally's house is-"

"I know how to get to Albright's house." Kevin informed the younger man, pushing his arm out of his field of vision. "Stop being a side-seat driver. Read your book."

"I already finished my book." The boy shot back. He'd finished several book over the course of the summer.

"Then read another one." Kevin suggested. The kid had brought a whole duffle bag full of books. Devlin had two great pleasures in this world -and he got both of them from his parents- his car, and reading and being an insufferable know-it-all.

The boy made a noise that might have been a scoff, or a grumble of begrudging agreement. Kevin wasn't sure, but it didn't matter. They were almost at Albright's house anyway.

He pulled into the drive way, a long wide stretch of packed churt, lined on either side with tall stalks of summer corn. The last time Kevin was here, several months ago before the summer began the fields were flat and empty. It looked like Albright still kept up with the planting -even if he wasn't actually a farmer anymore. What was it Gwen said he worked as now? Agricultural Commissioner, what did one of those even do?

They pulled into the turn-around in front of the house and were stopped by a collage kid a dorky sun-hat with caked on sunscreen on his nose. She leaned down next to the drivers side window. "Are you here to see Dr. Green?"

"Who?" Kevin blinked at her, confused. This was Alan's house -Alan Albright. He didn't know anyone named 'Green'.

"She means Kai." Devlin explained from the passenger seat. "After she divorced Uncle Ben, she went back to her maiden name, Kai Green. She also has a doctorate in pre-colonial archeology." Leaning over the center consul he addressed Kai's grad student. "We're actually looking for Kenny Tennyson, Dr. Green's son. I'm his cousin. They know me. Its not creepy."

It wasn't creepy up until Devlin said that last bit. At that remark, the grad student's expression shifted from patient and helpful to suspicious and wary. Everyone working under Dr. Green knew that her son's father was the great Ben Tennyson. A kid with that high-profile a parent was going to have his fair share of stalkers, obsessed fan, or even attempted kidnappers.

"Is Kenny expecting you?" She asked.

Before either Devlin or Kevin could answer another vehicle pulled up the driveway behind them. Ally's beat-up old pickup truck. Upon recognizing Devlin's car -Kevin's car?, the kids weren't sure how to assign ownership anymore- she honked her horn once to get their attention then killed the engine and hopped out.

Recognizing Ally coming towards him in the side mirror, Devlin unbuckled his belt and practically leapt out of the passenger seat. He hadn't realized just how stir crazy he'd been going with only Kevin to talk to until he saw his friend in person.

Ally ran up and glomped him. Not a hug, a glomp. "Ohmygosh! I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Its been so long since I've seen someone who's not Kevin!" He replied. Then took a step back to look at her. "You shaved your head again."

"Hair's easier to take care of when you don't have any." Ally reminded him, running a hand over her smooth dark scalp. Then the hand was reaching forward to brush through the thick stubble where his sides were growing back. "We need to touch you up. You're starting to look messy."

"Well, I can't have that." Devlin laughed.

The grad student that had originally stopped them blinked at the familiar exchange between Ally and Devlin. Kevin flashed to poor kid a smug smile before he leaned over the passenger seat to ask the Pyronite girl where he could park.

Ally pointed him towards the garage, and he pulled away. Leaving Kai's poor grad student in the dust looking confused.

"Go polish an arrowhead, Tsol." Ally waved her away, while turning back to her truck to likewise move it out of the driveway and into the garage.

Devlin followed her, and that was when he saw Kenny sitting in the passenger seat. He had not made any move to get out or say 'hi' at all. Their eyes met, and Kenny looked away first. Devlin suddenly found his feet very interesting.

Ally huffed. "Honestly, you two." And grabbed Devlin by the arm, practically dragging him back to her truck. She shoved him in the front seat, practically onto Kenny's lap, before coming around and reclaiming the wheel. Kenny scooted over as much as he could so that the three of them could share the front seat.

There was an awkward silence.

"Dev, I should also introduce you to Lightstar and Sigil." Ally jerked her thumb back to indicate two other teenagers that were sitting in the bed of the truck. Devlin was unclear on which one was supposed to be Lightstar and which one was supposed to be Sigil. "Guys, this is our other friend, Devlin."

He gave an awkward wave. It was always just a little uncomfortable for Devlin when meeting new people. But that's what happened when you spend the first decade of your life in semi-isolation. Social anxiety. But he tried to force a friendly smile on his face. "Those are some hard core Magic Names you got there."

"Kenny picked them up today in Town Square." Ally continued. "They're lost and we're helping them get to Morganstern city."

"Why would you wanna go there?" The Osmosian blinked at them. Admittedly, Devlin didn't know much about the town on the other side of Bellwood other than the fact that it was also home to one of his mother's most dangerous enemies -dangerous to her. The Lampray mutant, Michael Morningstar who went by the alias 'Darkstar'. As Kevin had just reminded him earlier that day, Anodites were prey to a very specific type of predator, Darkstar was that kind of predator.

"Our dad lives there." The boy answered.

"Ah." Devlin made a non-committal noise, and reminded himself that not everyone had the same complicated relationship with their fathers as he had with his own. "My dad drove me here to see my friends."

He glanced sideways at Ally and Kenny. Mostly just Kenny. The other boy hadn't said anything to Devlin at all.

Ally took her attention off parking long enough to elbow Kenny in the ribs.

"Ow! What!?"

She finished pulling into the spot next to Devlin and Kevin's car and killed the engine. Then she fixed Kenny with her full attention. A hard and stern glare. Silently reprimanding him for not acknowledging his cousin. A cousin whom -up until recently- was closer to him than a brother. Kenny avoided her stare, shame faced.

Then Ally put back on her friendly smile. "I'm going to show Sigil and Lightstar a decent map. Devlin, my truck has been making a funny sound recently when I go uphills. Could you take a look at it for me? Kenny can help you. He knows where my tool kit is."

She climbed out of the truck and went around back to let Lightstar and Sigil out of the bed.

Kenny fled out her open door. "I guess I better start looking for her tool kit. I don't actually know where-"

He was cut off abruptly when Kevin materialized behind his back, his own red tool box in hand. "Here, Tiny-Tennyson, you can borrow mine."

Kenny was thrown off balance when the older man practically dropped the metal case into the younger boy's unexpecting and unprepared hands.

Behind Kenny's back, Ally mouthed a silent 'Thank you', at the older Osmosian.

To which Kevin only replied with a microscopic nod. It was high time the boys got over themselves and reconciled. Subtlety wasn't exactly Kevin's strongest area of expertise, but he understood when it was and wasn't necessary. In this instance, it was necessary. Out loud he said, "Hey, Sparky, you dad keep beer in the house?"

"Sure. I'll show you the kitchen." She smiled.

In less time than it took someone to say 'Hero Time' Kenny found himself alone in the garage with Devlin.

There was an awkward silence.

Both boys avoided eye contact.

Devlin sighed.

Pulling on his gloves to make sure they were good and tight over his hands, the Osmosian got out of the truck and came around to pop the hood. He might not know where he stood with Kenny anymore, or if their relationship would ever return to what it was before. But he did understand machines. Engines, gears, moving parts. Those, at least, were things Devlin could fix. After giving the engine a cursory inspection he held one gloved hand out to Kenny.

"Piston pliers."

"What?" The other boy blinked.

Devlin didn't look at him when he repeated, "Piston pliers. They look like pliers with a pronged clamp at the end."

Kenny balanced the tool box on the truck's bumper and opened it. Kevin was not the most organized mechanic in the world. He also didn't keep the most conventional tools. Kenny had to shift around random bits of iron chain, fragments of Taydenite, stone shards, torn remnants of rubber, and other such absorbable materials until he found the tool his cousin was describing. Kenny dropped the pliers in Devlin's hand without even coming close enough to touching him.

His gloved fingers closed around the tool and Devlin went to work removing a piston ring. He kept his eyes on his work, not looking at his cousin when he said, "I'm wearing my gloves, Kenny, you don't have to be afraid of touching my hands."

They already weren't looking at each other, but Kenny somehow managed to look even more away. His head was turned so far, he couldn't even see his cousin's hands working when he replied. "Its not your hands that bother me, Dev."

If Devlin's hands hesitated in his task, Kenny didn't see it. His body was turned to far away.

There was a moment's pause as Devlin tried to compose himself so that his voice didn't choke when he asked, "So what is it that bothers you now? Whatever it is never seemed to bother you before."

"Ya know, for such a smart guy, you really are stupid." The younger boy growled back. "Its not your powers that bother me, Dev. Its the fact that you grew up being warned what would happen if you used them -and then you went and used them! On me! Don't deny it. I was there. All our lives Aunt Gwendolyn told us why it was dangerous for you to absorb to much energy. All our lives my Dad shared stories about all his battles with energy absorbing enemies, Darkstar, Aggregor, and -yeah- even your dad, just to hammer home that it was bad for you to absorb a lot of energy. You knew all that. You knew what would happen to you. You knew! And you did it anyway."

"Kenny, I-" Devlin tried to cut in.

"And then-" But the younger boy wasn't giving him the opportunity to argue the point, "-then you go and try to absorb me! There were plenty of other prey in the base for you. Our friends, the bad guys, even your own mother whom is an Anodite and should have been much more appetizing for you! But instead you went after me -and only me. You really wanted to eat me, Dev. You really wanted to kill me. Why? What have I ever done to you? I thought we were friends. I thought we were best friends!"

"We are best friends!" Insisted the older boy.

"Friends don't eat friends!" Kenny shouted back.

Devlin set the tool down and turned to face his cousin. Looked him right in the eyes when he began. This was important. "Look, the reason why I was so focused on absorbing you and not anyone else was because you're-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses." The younger boy turned away again, waving a hand of dismissal -and showing off that he was back to wearing his faux-Omnitrix again. Well, at least that was back to normal.

An inaudible sighed escaped Devlin's lips. He hadn't realized the fact that Kenny stopped wearing his Omnitrix after that incident bother him so much. It was good to see it back on his cousin's wrist where it belonged. But that didn't change the fact that Kenny still didn't know that he was also an Anodite. An energy being every bit as powerful as Devlin's own mother. But dormant and unaware of his power. As Kevin pointed out, there were other things in this world that preyed on Anodites, and it Kenny didn't know he was one, then he was leaving himself open to attack.

"Its not an excuse." The older boy insisted. "Its the truth, and it's important."

But Kenny had already set down Kevin's tool box and was stomping his way to the open garage door. "If it was so important, then you could have told me months ago when it happened. Instead of waiting all summer to come up with your excuses."

"Its not an excuse!" Devlin insisted, following his cousin out. "Its just an explanation. But its something you need to hear."

Kenny didn't pause or slow down. He continued on into the house and Devlin found himself having to jog a bit to catch up. It was a bit of a surreal roll reversal for them. Usually it was Kenny always having to sprint to catch up to Devlin. The older boy was always in a hurry to get somewhere. Get to school. Get to the Weekend Academy. Get away from Kevin. He never thought he'd have to sprint to catch up to Kenny -whom was trying to get away from _him_.

"Then I probably would have needed to hear it months ago too, and you didn't tell me then. So why tell me now?" The kitchen's screen door slammed shut behind the younger boy.

Devlin hopped up the porch steps and wrenched to screen open to continue following his cousin.

Kevin was sitting at the kitchen counter, a beer in one hand, a sandwich on a plate in front of him. "He went that way." The older Osmosian pointed. "Did you tell him yet?"

"I'm trying." Devlin informed his father.

The older man only shrugged and went back to his beer and sandwich. "Sparky took the wonder twins into Albright's office. Tiny-Tennyson probably went there." There was a pause in which Kevin stared at the level of his beer bottle. Then, just when Devlin was almost out of the kitchen, still hot on his cousin's trail, Kevin called him back. "Devlin-"

"What?" The younger Osmosian poked his head back in the kitchen, irritation coloring his voice. He was on a mission. What did Kevin want that was so freakin' important?

"Those twins, they look like they're from Ledgerdomain." He said slowly, as if trying to call up an old memory he hadn't thought about in years.

"I donno." Devlin shrugged. He literally just met them just now. "Their clothes look like they're from Ledgerdomain."

"If, uh, if you can do it without being to obvious about it, can you find out who their parents are?"

Devlin came back into the kitchen fully. Confused. Kevin sounded concerned. He wasn't used to his father appearing concerned. Board, angry, frustrated, impatient, sleepy. That was how Devlin was used to seeing his father act. Even back when they were trying to rescue his mother from Cooper, his father masked his concern under a layer of anger and frustration. It was so disorienting that Devlin found himself nodding. "I'll find out."

Kevin nodded back, and Devlin was dismissed to go find his cousin.

As his father predicted, Devlin found Kenny with Ally and their new friends, Sigil and Lightstar. They were all in Alan's office. Ally had a map of the surrounding area unfolded on the desk and way trailing the rout they should take to get to Morganstern city.

"You take the forty heading this direction." She was saying. Then pointed to something on the map. "This is the old power plant. You should be able to see it from the freeway. Once you pass that, you can take any of the next three exits and that'll get you into town."

The boy pointed to something else on the map. "This looks like it also goes into the city."

"Oh, we don't take the fourth exit." Kenny informed him. "That road takes you straight to Morningstar Manor. You don't want to go there."

The siblings exchanged a look.

It was then that Devlin decided to announce his presence by clearing his throat loudly. All heads turned to stare at him lurking in the doorway. "Hey, sorry to interupt. But if your new friends need a ride to wherever it si they're going, I can drive them."

Assuming Kevin would let him have the key to his car back.

The boy smiled at the offer and Devlin noticed for the first time just how hansom he was. He didn't really get a good look at the other boy when they were first introduced, then sitting in the bed of Ally's truck and all. But now he had a clear view of his chiseled chin and almond shaped eyes, a straight nose and perfect teeth, and a high forehead below a crown of silver-white hair. Devlin felt a nervous twist in his stomach that he was sure had nothing at all to do with the argument he'd just had with Kenny.

"That's really nice of you." Said the boy. He offered his hand. "We weren't properly introduced before. You're name's Devlin, right? I'm Sigil."

Devlin took the other boy's extended hand in his own gloved one. "I'm, uh, hi."

His face felt hot. Was he blushing? He hoped he wasn't blushing.

Ally put a hand to her mouth in a vain attempt to suppress a squeal. "Awww! This is so cute!"

Devlin let go of Sigil's hand abruptly as if the other boy had burned him. He'd had crushes before. But they were never requited, and a rejection was not really what he needed right now. His feelings were already to raw from trying -and failing- to reconcile with Kenny. Devlin just couldn't handle another spurn on top of that. And the hansom young Sigil would spurn him. After all, who would want to date the son of Kevin 11,000? Devlin cleared his throat.

"I, uh, I'll got ask Kevin if I can borrow the keys." He moved to leave the room.

As he was exiting, he saw Sigil's sister grab Kenny's arm. She pressed her body against the boy's when she asked, "Can Kenny come too?"

Of course, the son of the great Ben 10,000 would have no trouble finding partners interested in him. Devlin tried not to let it bother him.

Ally pursed her lips together in a thin line of disproportional. The girl had only just met them. Where did she get off, hanging onto Kenny like that!? "Why don't we all go!" She suggested. "It'll be like a mini-road trip. To Morganstern City and back again!"

"Okay." Devlin nodded, wondering just how awkward this car ride was going to be. With Kenny who still wasn't talking to him, a girl that was hanging off him, Ally glaring at the pair jealously, and the super cute boy Devlin had just met and was trying really had not to crush on. Then again, nothing in his life ever seemed to be easy. "I'll go grab the keys from Kevin."

He left.

"Oh, this is gonna be so fun!" Lighstar said, still hanging onto Kenny.

He smiled at her, and moved his arm to wrap it around the girl's shoulders -completely ignoring the fact that he'd only just met her, like, two hours ago. There was just something about her. Some nebulous and ephemeral pull that was drawing him into her. As he lifted his arm, Kenny noticed two weird star-shaped marks on his arm where she had held him. Red and irritated looking, almost like hickeys. But he decided to ignore them. They didn't hurt. It wasn't worth making a big deal over.

…


	5. Teenage Rebellion

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Four: Teenage Rebellion

"Absolutely not." Kevin crossed his arms over his chest and refused to give up the keys.

"You haven't let me drive all summer. Its my car!" Devlin argued back. The boy regretted that last line the moment it was out of his mouth. He already knew what his father's rebuttal would be.

"No, its _my_ car!" The older Osmosian reminded him. It only passed to Devlin because Kevin was locked in the Null Void for the better part of two decades. "And I don't want you taking off to Darkstar's home town, with two strange kids I don't know. Do you know who these kids are? Where'd they come from? Why do they wanna get to Morganstern City so badly?"

Well, at least one of those questions Devlin could answer. "Their dad lives there."

That was about all Kevin needed to hear. Twins from Ledgerdomain who's father lived in Morganstern City. Yup. That was it. Kevin's memories from during his rampage sixteen years ago were a bit spotty and inconsistent -his mental faculties got progressively worse the more races and powers he absorbed. But when he went to Ledgerdomain to steal Charmcaster's fourth of the Map of Infinity -the Alpha Rune- he remembered her having a pair of twins, and those twins being the unholy leech-spawn sprung from Darkstar's loins.

Kevin was not about to let his only child run off with Darkstar's hellish offspring, to the very heart of Darkstar's territory, with Darkstar's ideal prey in tow! There was just so much wrong with everything in that plan, even back during his most insane, irresponsible, energy-drunk, absorption madness moments you would not be able to convince him that, that was a good idea.

"You are definitely not going, and you're not taking Tennyson's brat either."

Devlin wanted to argue the matter further. Kenny seemed to really like that girl and if it would mean that Kenny would be okay with allowing himself to be locked in a car with Devlin for a few hours, the Osmosian boy was willing to put up with trying to socialize with strangers. If it would make Kenny more comfortable around him.

But Devlin didn't know how to put that into words, and even if he did, he doubted Kevin would understand or care. The older Osmosian still wouldn't give up the car. 'Punishment for his actions during the Rooters fiasco' was probably just an excuse for Kevin to take it away from him.

"I'm never gonna get my car back, am I?" He accused.

Kevin got up to pull another beer from the 'fridge. "That depends."

"Oh what?" Devlin demanded.

The older man shrugged. Absorbing a bit of metal from the stove, he morphed two fingers into a bottle opener and popped off the beer's cap. "On if the spare Tetramand engine block from my storage space still works. On how long it might take me to build a new car." Another shrug, and a sip of beer. "Lots of things. But your definitely not getting it back today, and your definitely-definitely not taking Tiny-Tennyson to Morganstern City."

Devlin snarled, a feral, inhuman sound that hinted at the mutant monster form he kept suppressed. "You're such a jerk!"

The boy stomped away.

"Its called parenting!" Kevin called after his retreating back. He sat back down at the kitchen counter. "At least, I'm pretty sure this is how I'm supposed to do it."

In all honesty, he was still pretty new to this whole 'being a dad' thing and wasn't sure if he was doing it right. Whenever a situation arose that required him to be a 'dad' rather than the brutish mutant combat tank he was used to being, Kevin asked himself two questions: Is this something Gwen would be okay with? and What would have happened when I was his age and I did that?

In this case specifically, Kevin _had_ gone to Morganstern City when he was Devlin's age -also during a summer road trip- and he and Ben proceeded to get their asses kicked by an over-powered Darkstar and Gwen had to save herself. Except that, unlike Gwen, Kenny didn't know he had powers that could be stolen. So if the kids crossed paths with Darkstar, they'd just get their asses kicked and die. Gwen definitely wouldn't be okay with that -and Kevin would prefer his son not die on this trip.

…

Devlin stormed back into Alan's office in an angry huff.

Everyone looked at him expectantly. Kenny was leaning against Alan's desk, one arm around Lightstar's shoulders, her hand reaching up to her shoulder to hold his. They looked so comfortable together, like two people who had been dating for years. Not two strangers that only met that day.

Ally was folding her dad's map back up and putting it away, all while shooting dirty looks at the pair.

Sigil perused the books on Alan's shelf.

Devlin sighed when he saw all eyes turn to him. "He wouldn't let me have the keys."

There was a general grumble of disappointment in the room, not from any one in particular. Just all of them venting their let down in non-verbal exhales of varying tone and tumbler. Except for Lightstar. She made a distinctly audible "Aw..." of disappointment and pressed herself closer against Kenny's side.

That was what prompted the young Omnitrix wielder to ask, "Do you even need the keys?"

"What?" Devlin looked up, meeting the other boy's eyes, not understanding the question.

"Do you even need the keys?" Kenny repeated. "Come on, Dev. Are you telling me that after all that time you spent under that car, that you don't know how to hotwire it?"

Devlin opened his mouth to reply, but Ally cut him off. Stepping into the middle of the room and placing herself between the two boys.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you suggesting that Devlin should steal Mr. Levin's car?" She stared at Kenny, a wide-eyed, disbelieving state. She never would have imagined her friend would make a suggestion like that. Not in a million years and eleven parallel universes. Not even if he was finally hitting his 'rebellious phase'. Ally always imagined Kenny's 'rebellions' would take the form of abject laziness. No doing anything, as opposed to always being a shining example of helpful heroism that his dad was trying to teach him to be. But advocating delinquent behavior and grand theft auto? That was not Kenny.

"Its not Kevin's car. Its Dev's. Kevin stole it from him." Kenny reminded her. "He'd just be taking back what was rightfully his."

Devlin actually liked the sound of that. And it would serve Kevin right for trying to be the boss of him! "You know what? I _can_ hot wire it!"

Now it was the Osmosian Ally fixed with the disbelieving stare. "You cannot be serious! Come one, Devlin, you're supposed to be the good one!"

Kenny was ignoring her. He disentangled himself from Lightstar and pushed off the desk. "Well then, lets get going."

Lightstar followed him out of the room. Sigil looked between his sister's retreating back and the other two teenagers still in the room. He wasn't quite sure what the issue was. They didn't exactly have cars back in Ledgerdomain and so he wasn't sure how 'hotwiring' one would be stealing it if it achieved the same results as using a key -or how that played into the assigning of ownership of it being Kevin's, but Kevin took it from Devlin, etc. It was all very confusing. "I, uh... I'll just follow my sister."

Devlin was left to be glared at by Ally.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." He told her.

"And if I don't come along who's gonna keep you morons out of trouble?" The Pyronite girl shot back. "Kenny's not thinking clearly and you've clearly gone insane. Those two are from a parallel magical dimension and don't know a damn thing about the world. You need at least one rational person in the group and for once its not you."

…

It was awkward in the car.

With Kenny and Lightstar cuddling in the back seat like they'd been going steady for years when they really didn't even know each others last names or True Names. Ally cramped in the back next to them was shooting disapproving glares at the couple, her arms crossed over her chest. Devlin was impressed at her self control at not bursting into flames. In the front seat next to Devlin sat Lightstar's brother, Sigil.

The silence was thick.

"So..." Devlin began, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, feeling the tension like an almost tangible tingling on his skin. "Anybody read any good books lately?"

"Ooh! I recently just finished ' _Meaning of Witchcraft_ ' and ' _Gardnerian Book of Shadows_ '." Sigil pipped up, just as glad for something to distract from the tension as Devlin was.

"I have trouble really appreciating Gerald Gardner's writing." Replied the Osmosian. "I've read ' _High Magic's Aid_ ' and that was pretty good. But it was also a work of fiction. When I was reading ' _Witchcraft Today_ ' I got really frustrated because it just didn't seem relevant. Then again, I'm not a magic user, so maybe my views are a bit skewed. Then again, I have found some of Aleister Crowley's books to be very informative."

"Ooh, you've read Crowley too?" Sigil now seemed legitimately interested. "I never expected to find anyone outside Ledgerdomain to read magical texts."

"I, uh, I read a lot." Devlin muttered, slightly embarrassed. He could feel his cheeks coloring again and hoped the other boy didn't notice. "And my mom's got a huge magical library."

"That's amazing! I didn't think that was a thing out here." Sigil continued. "So, what have you read?"

"' _Spirit of Solitude_ ' was the first one I read." Supplied the Osmosian, happy to be talking about books. Kenny never wanted to talk about books, and Kevin... Kevin picked one up once during their road trip, glanced at the cover art, and never showed an interest again. "I picked it up, literally, just for the title. I've was going through a bit of an angsty phase and it appealed to me."

"That wasn't a phase, Dev, that's your whole life." Kenny commented from the back seat.

Devlin made a face and shifted the angle of his rearview mirror so that he didn't have to watch Kenny get felt up by Sigil's sister anymore. "Anyway... It turned out to be very different than what I was expecting. But it was still interesting. From there I tried the ' _Holy Books of Thelema_ ' and a couple of his other more relevant works."

"Have you read anything by Starhawk?" The other asked.

"I gave both ' _Dreaming the Dark_ ' and ' _Walking to Mercury_ ' a try." He answered. "But I have a hard time trusting an author who publishes under his craftname instead of his real name."

"Oh. So then you must not like Ravenwolf very much either." Sigil commented.

"I don't read _garbage_!" Devlin informed him.

At that, Sigil burst out laughing. An honest and true laugh of amusement. "Garbage, huh. Oh, man... is that ever the truth."

"Looks like Sigil just found his soul mate." Lightstar joked as she moved one of her hands from Kenny's arm up to his neck, leaning in close. "Looks like your cousin and my brother have really hit it off."

"Would you two quit it!" Ally snarled at the pair. "You have no idea how uncomfortable it is back here with you two feeling each other up!"

Devlin readjusted the rearview mirror back so that he could glare at his cousin just as reproachfully as Ally had been. "No hanky-panky in my car! You two wanna touch each other inappropriately, do it somewhere else!"

Had he not already been irritated half-way out of his mind, Devlin might have reflected at just how out of character that was for Kenny. Admittedly, Kenny had never had a girlfriend before so Devlin couldn't actually be sure just how his cousin would act with one. But it was a safe bet to assume that -with the first one, at least- he'd be so out of his depth and experience as to be awkward, hesitant, and shy. He would not -or rather, should not- be letting her feel him up and down in full view of an audience!

"I will turn this car around and take us all back to Mr. Albright's house if you two don't calm down!" The Osmosian snapped.

Sigil turned around in the passenger seat to flash a stern warning look at his sister, while Ally mouthed a silent "thank you" at Devlin in the rearview mirror. Lightstar looked appropriately chastised and moved both her hands away from Kenny's neck. Only one of them resting on his forearm instead. Kenny glared murderously at the back of Devlin's head, as if he were some vile interloper ruining what would have been an otherwise perfect trip.

"Speaking of Mr. Albright..." Devlin cleared his throat, deciding it was best to change the subject. "Ally, did you remember to text your dad and let him know that Kevin was over at your house?"

…

Alan pulled into his garage and saw his daughter's truck parked, so she and Kenny must be back from the river. With any luck, Kai was putting them to work at her dig and keeping them -mostly Kenny- out of trouble. Before dating Kai, Alan never really appreciated just how much of a handful her son really was. High energy, extroverted, and curious. But if left to his own devices almost always got himself into trouble. Alan didn't know if he should have a newfound respect for Ben's stamina, or else curse his poor parenting.

Leaving the garage, Alan wondered how in the world Ally managed to be friends with the young Tennyson. That trail of thought, however, came to a screeching halt the moment he opened the kitchen screen and saw the last person he expected -or wanted- to come home and find in his house.

"Kevin!" He head the screen door slam shut behind him, adding an uncomfortable punctuation to his exclamation. Alan jumped at the sound so close on his heels. "What are you doing here!?"

The Osmosian lowered the beer had was in the middle of sipping and raised a quizzical eyebrow at the other man. "I don't know why you're so surprised. Who'd you think would be here after you saw my car in your garage?"

He did, after all, have a very distinctive muscle car. Electric green with black racing stripes, and custom everything.

Alan sputtered helplessly for a moment, not quite sure how to process this. His original knee-jerk reaction when seeing Kevin was to defend -attack- first and ask questions later. The Osmosian had absorbed him enough times in the past that Alan did not trust him. But ever since the fiasco with the Rooters and learning just how intertwined his past was with Kevin's, the Pyronite hybrid wasn't so sure where they stood with each other anymore.

"Are you here about more Rooters things?" He asked, emptying his pockets of anything flammable or meltable -like his wallet and car keys. Just in case he needed to transform after all. One never really knew for sure with Kevin.

"No. I was just bringing Devlin to see Tennyson's brat." The Osmosian informed him, raising a quizzical eyebrow at the Pyronite's clear display of distrust. "I'm not gonna absorb you, Albright. Stand down."

Hesitantly Alan relaxed his stance. "Are Kenny and Devlin speaking again?"

"Not sure, not my business." Kevin shrugged.

"Actually, as Delvin's father, it is your business." Alan informed him, crossing his arms over his chest and preparing himself to deliver an authoritative lecture. He had gotten rather good at them having to raise Alicia alone. "Communication with your child is key! Ally and I talk all the time and she doesn't give me half the trouble I hear Devlin gives you."

"Yeah, well, you've also been there here whole life." The other man reminded him, not in the mood to be lectured on how to handle his own child. "I didn't have that luxury with Devlin. You might not remember since you were a little half-dead at the time, but Tennyson threw me back in the Null Void when he was still just a new born. -And then left me there for _sixteen years_!"

Alan was not impressed. "You're breaking my heart." He glanced around. It was just a little two quiet in the house for there to be three teenagers hanging around. "Where are the kids, by the way?"

Honestly, Alan didn't know why he ever bothered to ask. He'd already decided that Kevin was not a responsible adult and not at all trustworthy enough to supervise a house plant, never mind three teenaged, superpowered children. So, it really came as no surprise to the Pyronite when the Osmosian gave a casual shrug.

"Your girl took everyone outside." Kevin supplied. "I assumed they were playing in your creepy as kriff corn field."

There was an asymmetrical twitch to Alan's eyebrows. His face contorting in an expression of abject annoyance. "Kevin." He growled. "Your car wasn't in the garage when I pulled in. Are you _sure_ the kids are playing in the field?"

Alan expected Kevin to looked confused at not actually knowing where they are, or mildly annoyed at being lied to. He did not expect the Osmosian's face to contort in an expression of abject worry bordering on panic, accented by a sizable -Kevin sized- portion of rage. He stood from the table, long dark hair falling around his face in agitated waves. Slamming down his beer, Kevin bolted from around the table. Brushing around Alan, he stormed back out to the garage.

"What's going on? Where are the kids? Where's my daughter?" The Pyronite followed the irate Osmosian. This situation suddenly started to feel uncomfortably familiar. It was like the Rooters fiasco all over again.

Kevin paused when they got to the garage, seeing Alan's car in the space where his had been.

"That brat is so dead." He growled low enough that Alan was pretty sure he was not supposed to hear. "Albright, I need to borrow your car."

…


	6. Devlin Reacts, Kenny Reacts

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Five: Devlin Reacts, Kenny Reacts

When they passed the old power plant on the north side of the freeway, Sigil leaned over the center consul. Much closer than he needed to be to ask the driver a question. His breath was warm on Devlin's ear when he asked, "You said the fourth exit leads to Morningstar Manor, right?"

A not entirely uncomfortable shiver ran down the Osmosian's spine at the sensation and he almost didn't catch the actual question as another flush rose to his cheeks. When the words did finally register, that excited flush vanished and Devlin raised an eyebrow, casting a suspicious glance sideways at the other boy. "Yeah... Why?"

"That's where our dad lives." Sigil answered. Matter of factly. As if there wasn't anything that should be an issue.

The car came to a screeching halt. Devlin stomping down on the break and just barely remembering to pull over to the shoulder before the car behind them slammed into their tail. The car swerved around them, their fist heavy on the horn, the other hand flipping them the finger as they passed. The Osmosian barely noticed the other drivers on the road or the near accident he almost caused by stoping so suddenly. Devlin stared at the passenger next to him.

" _What!?"_

Sigil seemed started. Legitimately taken aback. As if he didn't understand why the other boy might be bothered by their father living at Morningstar Manor.

Taking both hands off the wheel, Devlin grabbed Sigil by the shoulders. Even through the fabric of his gloves and the other boy's sleeves, his grip was vice-tight. "Your father, what's his name? Is your father _Darkstar_?"

"Well- yes, that is his Magic Name." Sigil confirmed, still confused as to why the other boy was reacting this way.

"Oh my gawd!" The Osmosian released the other boy and hung his head over the steering wheel. Then his hands balled into fists. "Get out! Get out of my car! _Kenny, get away from her!_ "

Kenny was sitting in the middle of the back seat, sandwiched between Lightstar and Ally. He had no where to go.

Devlin pressed the lock release, unlatching all the doors. "Ally, separate them! _Now!_ "

"What? Why?" Asked the Pyronite girl, not understanding the problem. She had missed the exchange between Devlin and Sigil in the front seat, having been to distracted by how much Lightstar's fondling of Kenny bothered her.

Reaching under the steering column, Devlin quickly undid his wiring work and the engine died. The car wasn't going anywhere any time soon. The Osmosian jumped out of the driver's seat and stomped around the car to the door closest to Lightstar. Wrenching it open, he grabbed the girl and dragged her out by her arm.

"Whoa! What the hell are you doing!?" Sigil jumped out of the car after the Osmosian. "That's my sister!"

"And that is my cousin!" Devlin snarled back. He shoved the girl into her brother's confused and defensive arms while he leaned into the backseat and grabbed Kenny by the wrist instead. He pulled the arm Lightstar was hanging off of most and was alarmed to find it covered in a plethora of angry red star-shaped marks. Red and puckered, like hickeys, as if something were sucking on his skin. Something round with teeth that might leave star shaped marks.

Kenny wrenched his arm out of the Osmosian's grip. "Dude, what is your glitch!?"

But Devlin wasn't listening to his cousin, he turned his attention back on the twins from Ledgerdomain. "Let me see her hands!"

"What?" Sigil asked, wrapping one arm protectively around Lightstar while the rest of his body shifted to place himself between her and the pissed off Osmosian. "Why?"

"I'm not playing around with Lamprays!" Devlin snarled. Especially not with his Anodite cousin that was ignorant of his powers and completely vulnerable to the predators. "Let me see her hands. Let me see _both_ your hands!"

Ally climbed out of the car and came around to stand next to Devlin. "Lamprays, what the hell?"

"He just told me that their dad who lives in Morganstern City is _Darkstar!_ " Devlin snarled, jabbing an accusatory finger at the twins. "Darkstar! My mother's most dangerous enemy. The single worst thing you can allow in a room with an Anodite!"

Ally did not react the way Devlin expected her to. At hearing that declaration, instead of moving into a defensive stance, ready to back her friend up if it came to a fight, she placed a passive hand on the Osmosian's arm and looked at him with disappointment. Disappointment! As if _he_ was the one in the wrong here! "Devlin..." She began gently, "you _-of all people-_ should know not to assume the worst of someone because of their _father's crimes_."

The Osmsian sputtered for a moment, thrown off balance by the comparison.

Then Kenny climbed out of the car. Confused over the outburst, and angry at not understand what the hell was going on and why Devlin ripped Lightstar out of his arms when they were just getting to know each other. "What the hell is going on!?" He demanded. "Have you gone nutty again?"

Kenny lifted his arm, the one with the faux-Omnitrix, ready to transform into the first alien it gave him and fight Devlin if the Osmosian had gone crazy again, if it meant defending himself from being absorbed by an enraged mutant monster, if it meant protecting Lightstar. -And Devlin saw that there were more star-shaped marks on the other arm too.

"Get back in the car, Kenny." The older boy shifted his position, making sure he was between his Anodite cousin and the two Lampray spawn. "You don't know what's going on here."

"What _is_ going on here?" Sigil demanded, also repositioning himself to put his sister behind him. Effectively shielding the girl from the angry Osmosian.

"I think we'd all like to know that." Ally agreed. She was still holding Devlin's arm, trying to be the voice of reason. Trying to keep everyone calm and sane, and prevent a fight. "Devlin, why are you freaking out so bad? So what if their dad was one of the guys your mom fought a lot? Your mom had to fight lots of people -including _your own_ dad!"

"Ally, I promise, I will explain everything once we get Kenny away from them." The Osmosian assured her.

"Hey! Don't I get a say in this?" Kenny snapped. "You're not the boss of me, Dev. You can't control who I hang out with. And if it comes down to a choice between the guy who absorbed my Omnitrix, went crazy, and tried to eat me, and the pretty girl who's genuinely interested in me and wants to spend time with me, I choose her! If you have a problem with this, then you can leave!"

There was a beat of startled silence.

Ally tightened her hold on Delvin's arm. She had hoped that being left alone in the garage would help the two of them work through their issue together. Clearly, that did not happen.

A growl escaped the Osmosian's throat then. A low rumble in the chest that bubbled up out of his throat. A deep, feral, inhuman sound that had no place coming out of a body that slender. "Did you not hear me? They're Lamprays. Look at your arms, moron! That bitch has been feeding off you!"

Kenny did look at his arms. He did not appear concerned. "What, these? Ally and I were at the river before you showed up. These are probably just mosquito bites."

"That's one big mosquito." Ally commented, seeing the marks for the first time. Her eyes went wide, one hand went to her mouth in concern, the other loosened its grip on the Osmosian. They did not look like any normal mosquito bites she had ever see. Maybe there was something to Devlin's concerns over the pair being Lamprays. Lightstar had been hanging off Kenny pretty much since they met.

But why would shoe go after Kenny? Aside from the Omnitrix, he was just a normal human, with a normal human's power and energy. If a Lampray was gonna go after one of them, Ally would have though it'd be her. As a Pyronite-human hybrid, she had the thermal energy of a small planet core compressed inside her petite human body. That would have to be a lot more appetizing to a Lampray (or even an Osmosian for that matter) than just a normal human with a fancy watch.

Come to think of it, back during the Rooters Fiasco, when Devlin went crazy and tried to absorb Kenny -he _only_ tried to absorb Kenny. Everyone else in the room was ignored. Was there something about the annoying boy that made him so appealing to all the energy-sucking type aliens, mutants, and villains? Not the Omnitrix, that was for sure.

"Kenny, maybe we should take a moment to hear Devlin out." She suggested, still thinking she could talk everyone down before a real confrontation arose. The last thing Devlin and Kenny needed right now was another fight, and Kenny sure as heck looked ready to fight his cousin over the girl he'd just met that day. "Devlin, instead of just shouting orders at everyone, why not just explain to everyone why you're freaking out?"

"I am _not_ freaking out!" Snarled the Osmosian. He was totally freaking out.

"I am not gonna stand here and listen to the insane ramblings of a guy I haven't spoken to in three months because he tried to _eat me!_ " Looks like Kenny was doing a fair share of freaking out himself.

The younger boy pushed past his enraged cousin and crossed the space to Lightstar and Sigil. He took the girl by the hand and glared challengingly at the Osmosian. Lightstar -whom had remained silent during this whole exchange- smirked, as if in triumph. As if she'd won some kind of private victory over the boys. Her brother didn't see it, he was glaring at Devlin and not looking at his sister.

"Kenny, get back over here." Commanded the Osmosian.

"Kriff-off, Dev! You're not the boss of me!" Snapped the other boy. Kenny was about as interested in listening as Devlin was in talking. He once again raised his faux-Omnitrix. This time he did slam his hand down on the watch face, not caring what alien it gave him. There was the iconic flash of electric-green light, and where Kenny had once been standing, there was instead- "Big Chill!"

Several things happened very fast.

The Necrofriggian pushed Lightstar's brother out of the way and blew a blast of freezing air at the Osmosian, exhaling from his mouth in a fierce gale of sub-arctic force. Sigil went tumbling to the ground, not fulling understanding what was going on. Devlin was not expecting the attack. The last time he'd seen his cousin, Big Chill was not one of the aliens in his line-up of ten transformations. He was so thrown by its sudden use that he failed to dodge the attack aimed at him -the Osmosian was frozen in place. The only part of him not covered in ice was his head.

Big Chill unfolded his wide moth-like wings and pulled Lightstar into his arms. Carrying the girl bridal style, he took off into the air, flying in no direction in particular. Just 'away from Devlin', and left her brother and Ally behind.

"Kenny, wait!" Ally called impotently after him.

But the changeling was either to far away to hear, or else was flat out ignoring her.

"Goddamn it, Kenny!" Devlin snarled from his bindings of ice. "Ally! Melt me out of this! We have to go after him - _quick_!"

She turned from the spot in the sky that was Big Chill's retreating back and looked at Devlin. Green eyes bright with rage, but under that was another emotion entirely, stronger and more potent than just the surface anger - _fear_. Worry. Concern. Devlin was afraid for his cousin. But afraid for what? Sure, he wasn't acting himself and he took off with a Lampray girl. But Kenny was just a normal human -shape changing watch not withstanding- what would a Lampray possibly want with him?

Ally transformed into her Pyronite form and stepped closer to the frozen Devlin. "I'll get you out of that." She told him. "But first you're gonna take it as an opportunity to cool down and tell me what the hack is going on."

Sigil picked himself up off the ground where Kenny and knocked him, rubbing his shoulder that had taken the brunt of the impact. "That's something I'd like to know too."

"Ally, can you restrain him?" Asked the Osmosian.

"You, chill." She jabbed one flaming finger at Devlin before turning to face Lightstar's abandoned brother. "Are you gonna make trouble?"

"No." He assured them both. "I'm just as confused as you are. I thought we were all getting along and then this one started freaking out."

"I am not freaking out!" Devlin snarled.

"Hush!" Ally snapped at him. Then, back to Sigil. "So, I can trust you not to attack us for, like, five minutes while I unfreeze Mr. Cranky-Pants over here."

"Of course." He assured her.

Devlin did not appear to like just how casually and easily Ally was handling him. How willing she was to just leave a potential enemy at her back. "Lean over the car!" The Osmosian commanded. "Put your hands on the hood!"

He would deal with him as soon as Ally got him freed.

"Dev, I swear, if you do not calm the kriff down, I will leave you frozen like this so you can wait for Mr. Levin -whom I;m sure will notice his car is missing eventually- to come and find you." She threatened. "Now, tell me what's really going on and why you just suddenly flipped out. This isn't Energy Madness. I didn't see you absorb anything and you're way to lucid."

The Osmosian looked away, avoiding eye-contact. He hated it when other people were right, he liked to be the know-it-all. But while he might have book-smarts, Ally had people-smarts, and when she was right, she was right. He did need to calm down, and she needed to know what Kenny really was -if for no other reason than to understand just how much danger he was really in. She was the voice of reason, she wasn't naive to the point of stupidity.

Taking a deep breath, Devlin let it out in a calming sigh. He still wasn't looking at anyone when he announced, "Kenny's an Anodite."

There was a beat of silence.

Then, "What?"

Ally blinked at him. "Like how you're mom's an Anodite? But... I've never seen him use mana before. And he's not really the type to hold back. He likes show-boating to much."

"He doesn't know he's an Anodite." Explained the Osmosian, relieved when Ally finally started using her fire to melt the ice holding him. He let out another sigh, this one of unconscious relief. "I only found out a few months ago at the Rooters base when I- when I... Pulled a Kevin."

"Okay... But how could he not know he's an Anodite?" Insisted the Pyronite girl.

"I don't know." Devlin admitted. "Kevin thinks its because Uncle Ben gave him his own Omnitrix when he was little that he never had the opportunity for his powers to awaken. Any time he was in danger, he would got for the watch. His mana never had a reason to spring into action. Without any triggers to bring it out, his power just stayed dormant. We might have gone his whole life never knowing if I hadn't absorbed to much energy and gotten Osmosian Vision."

"Osmosian vision?" Ally echoed, taking a step back.

Devlin flexed his muscles and the last of the ice holding him fell away. He stepped free. "When I absorb to much power, it does this funny thing to my eyes. I can see energy." He explained. Then the Osmosian turned his attention to the other member of their party. Lightstar's brother -her twin. Devlin wasn't playing around with Lamprays! "Let me see your hands!"

This time, the other boy didn't hesitate. He held his hands out for inspection.

Grabbing Sigil's bare hands in his gloved ones, Devlin peered at the other boy's palms. Inspecting them for any signs of a sucker that might be concealed there. A line that might look just a little to deep, or could split and open like the seem of lips. He pressed on the palms, squeezed them, pulled on them. No leech-like suckers appeared. Finally, the Osmosian had to conceed that this twin at least, wasn't a Lampray.

"My sister inhered the mutation." Sigil answered the unasked question. "I did not. We've never met our dad before -at least, not while we were old enough to remember him. That's why we crossed through the door and came here. We wanted to know who he is."

Devlin felt an uncomfortable pang of understanding bubble up from somewhere in his chest. He also understood the desire to know an obscure father he didn't have memories of and was banished to live in a different dimension from his own. But he squished that feeling back down. They could draw parallels between Kevin and Darkstar or Devlin and Sigil all day, that wouldn't bring Kenny back. Right now, they needed to focus on figuring out where Kenny had taken Lightstar, catch up to them, and get him away from her.

"Tragic. Listen, can you track mana?" Asked the Osmosian -demanded was more like it.

"A little." Admitted the other boy.

"Can you track Kenny?" Devlin pressed.

"No." Sigil admitted. He had only just met the Omnitrix wielder that day and wasn't that familiar with his magical trace. He wouldn't be able to track him without the help of an object that belonged to him. "But I can track my sister. We've always been together. I know her mana trace as well as my own."

"Perfect." Devlin popped open the trunk of the car and pulled out one of his duffle bags -the one that contained clothes, not books- and fished out his proto-tech armor. One of the few take-aways from the Rooters fiasco that could actually be appreciated. He then began to strip, right there in front of the other two.

"Devlin!" Ally put her burning hands over her face and turned her back to the Osmosian. "You're a boy! You can't just naked in front of me!"

"Oh, cool it, Ally. You know perfectly well you're not my type." As if to illustrate this, the Osmosian snapped the waistband of the bright rainbow pride underpants he was wearing. "Besides, I think Kenny's life is a little more important than modesty right now."

Sigil, for his part, remained silent and sucked on his bottom lip to keep from saying anything. He, at least, was appreciating the view. One couldn't tell under all the denim Devlin wore, he just looked skinny. But while his body was slender, it was also well defined with sculpted muscles from years of martial arts training with his mother and just more recently space combat training at the Weekend Academy. He might look skinny, but the Osmosian was actually very fit.

Devlin slipped on the proto-tech armor, ready for a fight if it came to one.

He then looked Ally up and down in her Pyronite form. All of her own clothes were incinerated the moment she transformed. Considering her appeal to modesty just moments ago, he fished back into his duffle bag and pulled out one of the larger sized t-shirts he liked to sleep in and offered it to her.

"Here. You can't ride in my car if you're on fire and you'll be naked when you power down." He closed the trunk and set the shirt down for her to pick up when she was no longer a human torch. Devlin then moved back to the driver's side of the car and bent down under the steering column. "Its gonna take me a few minutes to rewire this so we can drive." He jabbed a finger at Sigil. "You are going to have directions for me by the time we're ready to go. Got it?"

…


	7. Catching Up & Tracking

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Six: Catching Up & Tracking

Alan's car was an automatic. Kevin hated automatics. Give him a proper stick shift. No one drove stick shift nowadays.

The Osmosian kept a close eye on the RPM gauge as he pushed the speedometer up to 90. In the passenger seat, Alan braced one arm on the forward dash and the other on the door handle.

"Why the kriff did I let you in my car!" He breathed between panicked breaths as the Osmosian wove around the other drivers on the road, seemingly oblivious to their warning horns or the fact that blinkers were a thing and should be used to indicate a lane change. "You're kriffing insane!"

"So I've been told." Kevin agreed without argument. He took the fourth exit, the one that opened out onto avenue that lead almost directly to Morningstar Manor, almost cutting the curb when Kevin took the turn-around just a little to hard.

"Please don't destroy my car." The Pyronite pleaded, wincing at the sound of metal over concrete. "And stop driving like a maniac!"

"I'm not driving like a maniac." The Osmosian informed him, the picture of calm composure. "I'm driving like a guy on a mission."

They pulled to a screeching halt just outside the manor's gate. A baroque-style work of iron bars that Kevin closed one fist around to absorb the matter. Then he hammered said fist down on the gate's intercom button.

"Darkstar!" He shouted into the microphone.

Off to the side of the gate, Alan saw a security camera shift its angle to get a better look at the intruder at the gate.

"Levin, is that you?" Darkstar's voice cracked over the slightly bashed-in intercom. "I thought you were stuck in the Null Void. What are you doing out?" and more importantly "Why are you bothering me? Our business was concluded the moment you stabbed me in the back to steal the Alpha Rune."

At his side, Alan leaned in and hissed in Kevin's ear. "Out of curiosity, is there anyone in the universe you didn't screw-over back then?"

"That's a little unfair." The Osmosian hissed back. Sure, he betrayed and tried to absorb Alan and the rest of the Amalgams, sure he made deals with Ben's gallery of enemies only to turn around and double-cross them, sure he tried to kill Ben a couple dozen times. But he didn't hurt Gwen. He did it all for Gwen and their newborn Devlin. "I never hurt my wife and son."

Alan gave him a skeptical glance, but tactfully did not comment. He -unlike Kevin- actually saw how difficult raising his mutated and misshapen child alone really was. How much of a strain it put on her and her friendships. Out of all the people Kevin screwed over with his 'quest' to absorb a Celestialsapien, they were the ones who got screwed the most.

Now was not the time to argue about that, though.

Into the intercom Kevin said, "I'm not here about that. I'm looking for my kids. Where are they?"

"'Kids'!?" Darkstar echoed back. "As in you have more than one!? Dear lord!"

Alan couldn't help but agree with the Lampray. If there was ever a person in the universe that should not be breeding it was Kevin Ethan Levin. The fewer Osmosians there were to go crazy and rampage across the planet or the galaxy, the better. Into the intercom, the Pyronite said, "They're not all Kevin's children!" In fact, considering that Kevin hadn't even been present in Devlin's life for a year yet, Alan was still skeptical of even calling the Osmosian's biological offspring 'his son'. "Your kids showed up out of no where and took off with my daughter and Kevin's son!"

Kevin noted that Alan did not mention Tennyson's brat was with them as well. That was telling. Looks like, even after sixteen years, Darkstar and Ben were still enemies. Best not to let an enemy know that one of the great Ben 10,000's weaknesses was alone and unsupervised in the company of said enemy's offspring. Kevin didn't feel the need to correct him. Not because Darkstar was Ben's enemy, but because he didn't need the Lampray knowing that Kenny was an Anodite -his favorite food.

"Mine!?" He shock was audible even through the smashed intercom. The other end of the line went silent.

Alan and Kevin were left standing by the gate wondering what in the world was going on. More specifically, left Alan wondering if -at any moment- Kevin was going to lose his patience and break down the gate, charge into the house, and beat the ever loving crap out of Darkstar. Yeah, he was their enemy. But he really hadn't been on the Plumber's radar for a while. Several years, in fact. Certainly nothing that might deserve having an enraged Osmosian breaking down your front door and assaulting you.

The the gate opened, and Darkstar walked out.

"They'er with your brat, you say?" He was looking at Kevin.

"And mine." Alan reminded him.

Darkstar was ignoring the Pyronite. "Your kid is the son of my Lovely Gwendolyn..." continued the Lampray as if he were putting two and two together "...Devlin wouldn't happen to be an Anodite like his mother?"

Well, he sure knew how to put two together and come up with five.

Even if the Lampray was wrong, though, Kevin wasn't about to have any of it. He grabbed Darkstar by the collar of his blue-black bondage suit and shoved the other man against the nearest hard surface -which happened to be the iron gate hinge. "Now you listen to me you piece of-" he used a very rude word "-we are trying to get our kids back. If you harm one hair on my son's head... if you even _think_ about harming him -hell!- if you even look at him in a way I don't like, you won't need that iron mask of yours. No mask will be able to hide what I do to you."

It was a bit of a sobering reminder that Kevin had rampaged through the galaxy, absorbing over 11,000 different species, stealing the four pieces to the Map of Infinity, and tried to absorb a god for his son. And that was back when there was nothing and no one specific to direct his rage at. Devlin was the way he was and it was the universe's fault -so Kevin waged a war against the universe. What would the Osmosian do to an individual who tried to hurt his son -or worse, actually _did_ hurt his son.

Darkstar nodded his understanding. A loud gulp of tension audible in the back of his throat. But in spite of his obvious fear of the over-protective Osmosian, the Lampray still couldn't help but ask, "How are you gonna tell what kind of looks I'm giving him with this mask on?"

In answer to this question, Kevin snarled a wordless snarl and ripped Darkstar's iron mask from his head. He absorbed the metal from its clamps and crushed the thing in his hands, dropping it to the decadently paved ground between them. The Lampray stared at him from sickly eyes in sunken sockets, the dry skin pulled so tight that he couldn't blink all the way. Kevin Levin never did have much of a sense of humor, but it looked like where his kid was concerned, the man did not even pretend to play around.

"Side note:" added the Osmosian. "Gwen's not 'your Lovely Gwendolyn'."

Alan cleared his throat. "Ahem. If you two are done measuring your dicks and testing Kevin's patience... I think we've pretty clearly established that the kids aren't here. So, Darkstar, this is your town. Where would a bunch of teenagers go to get away from their parents or otherwise responsible adult supervision?"

"T'ch." The Lampray scoffed. "Well that's easy. Everyone only ever goes to the lake."

"The lake?" Kevin echoed. That sounded familiar.

"You should remember it, Levin." Darkstar added. "We had our decisive show down at the hydro-plant there the first time we met."

Oh. That lake. Yes, Kevin remembered.

…

"Okay, we're coming to an intersection."

Devlin lifted his eyes to the rearview mirror and glared at the boy from Ledgerdomain whom sat in the back seat with his hands duct taped together. Ally had protested, but Devlin had heard to many stories from his mother about the boy's father, Darkstar. The Osmosian wasn't taking any chances with a Lampray.

Was that hypocritical of him?

After all, _he_ was the son of Kevin 11,000. The notorious terrorist, warlord, and monster that had terrorized the whole galaxy.

No. No it was not hypocritical of him, because just before the summer, Devlin had proved that he was no better or worse than his own father when he absorbed Kenny's faux-Omnitrix, went crazy, and tried to absorb his dormant-Anodize cousin. So, the fact that he and Sigil were both sons of villainous fathers and he was treating the other boy like an enemy was not hypocritical. It was cautious. Practical. Devlin knew what Lamprays were capable of. It was exactly the same thing Osmosians were capable of.

It was a real shame, too.

Since they had so much in common.

In addition to the already established 'both being sons of terrible fathers' thing, they were also bookish and enjoyed reading for pleasure, were interested in magic -although Devlin couldn't actually use it himself- and seemed to spend a great deal more time than they should wrangling sibling or cousin that frustrated them to no end. Yup. They had a lot in common.

Plus, Sigil was absurdly cute on top of it all.

Of course, it wasn't as if he was even a possibility, even if he weren't a Lampray and his sister didn't just abscond with Kenny. Guys that Devlin liked never liked Devlin. It was just a fact of life. No one wanted to date the son of Kevin 11,000. Even if Sigil was dateable material, he wouldn't want Devlin.

"Take the left hand path." Sigil directed, not meeting Devlin's eyes in the mirror. "Lightstar's not far. Your cousin should be with her."

"He better be." The Osmosian growled back.

Ally -in the passenger seat next to him- placed a soothing hand on Devlin's shoulder. "And when he is, we're gonna try talking sense into them first. You're not gonna just charge in and attack Sigil's sister, okay?"

The Osmosian remained tactfully silent.

"Okay, Devlin?" She pressed, increasing the pressure on his shoulder.

He scoffed. "We'll see what happens."

"No, I'm serious." Ally wasn't letting this go. "This isn't like at the Rooters base where you can just go off the rails and do whatever the hell you want and expect the grown-ups to bail you out. In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Levin isn't here right now and even if he were, he'd be super pissed at you right now since we stole his car. We're gonna talk to Kenny first, and if he still won't listen to reason _then_ you two can beat each other up."

"It wasn't Kenny I was planning on beating up." The Osmosian informed her.

"Please don't hurt my sister." Sigil begged from the back seat. "She's never met an Anodite before. She probably doesn't know what she's doing."

Ally glanced at the Osmosian to see if he took away any insight from that last statement or gained a little perspective and understanding. After all, he knew better than anyone else in the car just what it was like to taste such a huge power and how it affected a creature that fed off energy.

But all he did was slow the car to a stop.

"Road ends here." He growled, not looking at either of them. "Are we off-roading or footing it? How far away are they?"

Sigil looked around where he'd led them to, then closed his eyes, feeling for his twin's mana. "No. They're close." He pointed. "In that building there by the lake."

"Fine." Delvin unbuckled his belt and dove under the steering column to undo all the wiring that was allowing the engine to run without the key. The last thing he needed right now was for the car to roll off without him. That done, the Osmosian hopped out of the car and sprinted towards where Sigil pointed.

Ally wasn't far behind him. "Wait, Devlin!"

"Hang on!" Sigil held up his bound hands for the Pyronite girl to see. "Could you at least open my door for me before rushing after him? I get that he's worried about his cousin, but I'm worried about my sister."

She nodded and paused to open the back passenger door for him. Then ripped the duct tape off his wrists. Devlin might not turst the other boy, but Ally was not so suspicious or pessimistic. If he wanted to hurt them, he probably would have done it already back when Devlin flipped his shit, and Kenny transformed and took off with Lightstar.

"Ow!" The boy snarled in pain when the duct tape pulled his arm hair away with it. "Thanks."

Ally did not deign to respond. She was to busy sprinting after Devlin. The Osmosian was banging on the main entrance when she got to him. A large industrial double-door. The kind with a push-bar instead of a handle -locked, of course- and the push-bars of each door were chained together with a large heavy iron chain and padlock just for extra measure.

Devlin kicked the door, trying on of the techniques they taught at the Weekend Academy for when a Plumber might have to force their way into somewhere. Except that it was meant for wooden doors of domestic residences, not industrial metal doors of decommissioned hydro plants. The doors didn't budge. The Osmosian snarled a wordless snarl of frustration. A deep inhuman sound that echoed his monster form even coming out fo his human lungs.

Coming up beside him, Ally stripped off the t-shirt he'd lent her and transformer into her Pyronite form.

"I could weld through the lock." She suggested. "It'll take a bit. I've never actually tried something like this before."

Rubbing a hand over his face, the Osmosian sighed. A heavy, exasperated sound of someone who had found some kind of resolve. Devlin began pulling off his electric-green gloves. "I have a faster way in."

He placed both bare palms against the double doors and exhaled, calming his nerves. Getting a feel for the metal. Letting it flow through him and past him.

Devlin's hands sank into the door, then his arms up to the elbow. He took a step forward and passed his whole body through the door.

It was only after Devlin was gone that Sigil managed to catch up and join Ally by the closed door. "Where'd he go?" he asked. "He's not gonna hurt my sister, is he?"

Ally was disturbed by the fact that she didn't actually know the answer to that question. Instead, she turned her attention back to the door and her idea of welding through the chain and lock -or just burning them open. "We're gonna get in there and make sure nobody hurts anyone!"

She started melting the door.

…


	8. Mana Drain

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Seven: Mana Drain

"I am not gonna stand here and listen to the insane ramblings of a guy I haven't spoken to in three months because he tried to _eat me!_ " Kenny was doing a fair share of freaking out himself.

The younger boy pushed past his enraged cousin and crossed the space to Lightstar and Sigil. He took the girl by the hand and glared challengingly at the Osmosian. Lightstar -whom had remained silent during this whole exchange- smirked, as if in triumph. As if she'd won some kind of private victory over the boys. Her brother didn't see it, he was glaring at Devlin and not looking at his sister.

"Kenny, get back over here." Commanded the Osmosian.

"Kriff-off, Dev! You're not the boss of me!" Snapped the other boy. Kenny was about as interested in listening as Devlin was in talking. He once again raised his faux-Omnitrix. This time he did slam his hand down on the watch face, not caring what alien it gave him. There was the iconic flash of electric-green light, and where Kenny had once been standing, there was instead- "Big Chill!"

Several things happened very fast.

The Necrofriggian pushed Lightstar's brother out of the way and blew a blast of freezing air at the Osmosian, exhaling from his mouth in a fierce gale of sub-arctic force. Sigil went tumbling to the ground, not fully understanding what was going on. Devlin was not expecting the attack. The last time he'd seen his cousin, Big Chill was not one of the aliens in his line-up of ten transformations. He was so thrown by its sudden use that he failed to dodge the attack aimed at him -the Osmosian was frozen in place. The only part of him not covered in ice was his head.

Big Chill unfolded his wide moth-like wings and pulled Lightstar into his arms. Carrying the girl bridal style, he took off into the air, flying in no direction in particular. Just 'away from Devlin', and left her brother and Ally behind.

"Kenny, wait!" Ally called impotently after him.

But the changeling was either to far away to hear, or else was flat out ignoring her.

They flew for a ways before Kenny's anger burned off enough for him to realize that he had no idea where he was or where he was going. He also felt inexplicably tired for some reason even though he hadn't really done anything strenuous. The last few hours prior to Devlin's latest nutty were spent sitting down in the car, reclining in the back seat, cuddling with Lightstar. There was no reason he should be feeling exhausted all of a sudden.

"Do you mind if I land?" He asked the girl in his arms.

Lighstar smiled a gentle smile, her black lipstick accentuating just how full and kissable her lips looked. "That might be wise."

He put them down on the roof of a building that was built right up on the edge of a lake. The water gently lapping on the side of the foundation. Kenny quickly decided that on top of the building was not the best place and -still holding Lightstar- phased them through the roof.

On proper solid ground now, he let the girl down.

Lightstar shivered. "Cold."

Kenny banged a fist against the emblem on his chest and reverted from Big Chill back to his normal human shape. "Yeah, sorry about that. Necrofriggian powers are pretty cool."

He smiled, hoping she would laugh at his bad pun.

She did not.

Instead, Lightstar took both of his hands in hers and looked up at him. Blue eyes sining with something akin to affection -not quite affection, but something like it. Possessiveness, maybe? "You're really unlike anyone I've ever met before, Kenny." She told him, her grip on his hands tightening. "I really like you."

"I feel the same way." He smiled at her, admiring the way her golden hair framed her face, almost like a halo of light. Had her hair always had that golden glow to it? Kenny liked it. "You're unlike any other girl I've ever met. I-" he paused, afraid the next thing he was going to say sounded stupid. Then said it anyway. "I feel drawn to you. Some how."

On the opposite side of the chamber, there was a loud bang at the main entrance. As if something powerful and angry were trying to get in. But the door was locked. Whatever or whoever was outside couldn't get in. Kenny and Lightstar could remain undisturbed.

"You are." She confirmed. Not agreed, confirmed, as if it were a fact that could be known or unknown and she knew it. "You are drawn to me, Kenny. Or -more accurately- drawn _into_ me."

He blinked in confusion at her for a second, not understanding. He didn't want her to think he was stupid for not understanding her meaning. He tried to run a hand awkwardly though his hair -suddenly nervous- but Lightstar wouldn't let him pull his hand away. She was holding him to firmly, and when he togged his arm, there was an unpleasant sensation of something sharp digging into his skin. Claws or teeth?

But that was ridiculous. The only thing touching him were Lightstar's hands and hands didn't have teeth. She did have long nails, but the sensation was under her palms and palms didn't have claws, fingers did.

Whatever was outside gave one final frustrated _bang_! against the door. But it still didn't get in.

Then, in a moment of sickening clarity, Devlin's mad rantings from earlier suddenly started to make sense. Darkstar's kids. Lamprey. Energy leeches!

Kenny tried to pull away. "Let go of me!"

"No." And this time, that smile of hers was neither affectionate not possessive, it was predatory. It wasn't even a smile anymore. It was a grin. A predatory grin. "I've never tasted mana like yours before. So pure..."

Kenny was already feeling tired, but now he started to feel downright weak. He sank to his knees, unable to stand. Lightstar still didn't let go of his hands.

"You- you're not feeding off the Omnitrix..."

That golden glow enough her was almost blinding now and he had to close his eyes against her aura's glare. His scalp itched where his hair was turning from a young and healthy brownish-auburn to sickly gray. His skin started to feel tight around his bones and Kenny knew it wasn't the watch she was draining -it was him. She was feeding off him.

Just like Devlin tried to do.

So, this is what it felt like.

Kenny would say that it hurt. Except he didn't have the energy to feel pain anymore and he just wanted to pass out already...

Then something entirely unexpected happened.

That thing that was banging on the main entrance got in. The door didn't open. It was still locked. But the thing got through it anyway. A skinny black blur. Dark in Kenny's already darkening vision.

" _Get you damn dirty hands off him you Lampray bitch!_ " Devlin landed a punch right to the woman's face.

His fist colliding with a cheek that glowed like living gold, but was by no means as soft as gold. Lightstar was thrown off balance, letting go of Kenny and staggering backwards to keep from falling over. But she didn't go down, and she didn't seem injured. She wouldn't be. She had absorbed to much power from Kenny. Her whole body was that same shade of unearthly gold. Glowing from the inside out. Overflowing with stolen power.

"I can see why you want him all to yourself, Osmosian." She said.

"Its not like that!" Devlin insisted.

He moved to place himself between the Lampray and his cousin. Devlin did not like the look of him. Kenny's hair had turned an uncomfortable shade of 'sick old man gray', his skin was dry and ashy, in some places pulled tight over his bones, loose and wrinkly in others, as if he'd suddenly lost an unhealthy amount of weight in an even more unhealthily short amount of time. He was still alive, but it was clear he was to weak to protect himself.

Behind Devlin, the main entrance to the hydro-plant began to glow as it was melted from the outside. Kenny's other friend and her brother trying to get in as well, no doubt. Lightstar yawned with distain.

"I really couldn't care less what it is or isn't like." She flexed her golden fingers, feeling to pure, raw power coursing through her body. She'd never felt anything like it before! Then she looked back up at the Osmosian standing between her and the best meal she'd ever hand in her entire life. "He's not completely dry. We could split the last few drops."

"Kriff-off, bitch!" He snarled at her. "You're gonna give Kenny's mana back!"

"Oh?" She smiled an amused smile at him. "And how do you expect to get me to do that?"

Behind Devlin the red-hot metal door finally melted off its hinges and they Pyronite girl ran in, stepping through the molten metal as if it were nothing. Sigil wasn't to far behind her, pausing just long enough to cast a shield spell over his boots to protect himself from the red-hot sludge.

Devlin smirked at her. "If I were Kenny I'd give a speech about friendship and teamwork always winning. But I'm a realest, so I'll just cut to the chase and beat you until you give up!"

"So, I guess talking didn't work." Ally surmised, coming up on Devlin's right. Her hands balled into fists and her fists erupted into flames.

Sigil came up on the Osmosian's other side. He gaped wide-eyed at his sister. He'd never seen her like this before. "'Star... what the... you're glowing. And gold!"

Devlin looked at the other boy in disbelief, not understanding how he could grow up so ignorant of himself and his powers. Sure, he was mostly raised by his mother whom wasn't a Lampray, but Devlin was also raised by his mother whom wasn't an Osmosian and he still knew about his powers and how his body transformed when he absorbed to much energy.

"Don't start with me, Sigi!" Lightstar snarled at her brother. "Back home you're the favorite. You're mommy's perfect little prince! But with Kenny's mana, I don't have to live in your shadow anymore."

That was when Lightstar decided she was finally through with talking. She let loose a wave of her new power. Sending a blast of raw golden energy at the trio. Not expecting the the attack, all three of them were thrown back. Knocked off their feet and rolling across the floor back towards the exit.

Devlin was the first to recover, trying to dig his human-shaped hands into the floor to stop. But it wasn't until Sigil threw up a magic shield spell to halt the bombardment of power and gave then a chance to catch their breath.

"What are we gonna do?" Ally asked, mostly addressing Devlin. "Stuff like this is exactly why I withdrew from the Academy."

"I swear, she's really very nice once you get to know her." Sigil insisted. Still trying to defend his sister, to spite the fact that she'd -essentially- just thrown him across a room.

Devlin wasn't listening to him. If he wanted to stay naive and defend his crazy sister let him. Kenny never gave _him_ the same luxury. Ignoring the other boy, the Osmosian turned his attention back to their enemy -and was horrified to realized that, when they were launched across the room, Kenny was not launched with them. He was laying at Lightstar's feet without Devlin between them to protect him.

"Sigil, let me out of this bubble." He said -ordered was more like it.

"What? Why?" Asked the other boy.

Grabbing Sigil by a fist-full of his silver-white hair, the Osmosian pointed his face in the direction of Kenny and Lightstar. "My cousin is still out there and your sister is going to _eat_ him!"

"Okay. Okay." The other boy agreed, eyes pinching shut from the pain of having his hair puled by a pissed off Osmosian.

He opened a gap in the mana shield just big enough for Devlin to slip out. He charged -not at Lightstar, but at Kenny. But was immediately hit by another blast of golden power and thrown back. This time, he went flying right over Ally and Sigil in their magical shield and right out the melted open hydro-plant doors. The Osmosian didn't stop his flight through the air until he was stopped by his car. Impacting the side and leaving a Devlin-sized dent on the passenger side door.

He looked at the damage done to the car, momentarily forgetting his cousin and the immediate danger he was in. The Osmosian ran a hand over the warped metal. "Sonofabitch!" He turned back to face the open entrance of the building where Lightstar's golden aura was shining through. "You dented my car!"

Climbing back to his feet, the Osmosian charged back through the melted doors.

"What do you think you can do?" Asked the Lampray girl, raising her hands for another attack.

Devlin threw up his own hands too. This time, when the wave of golden power hit him, he didn't try to fight it. He rode it. His body starting a partial transformaiton as it was saturated in energy. Starting at his hands, his arms turned red and swelled into two Tetramand arms, a third and fourth arm burst from his sides -a Vulpimancer and a Pyronite- wings sprouted from his back, and his eyes shifted on his face, changing number and shape. When the wave passed, where once Devlin stood, there was instead a monster made from the combined parts of ten different aliens.

Lowering all four of his arms, the Osmosian glared up at the Lampray. " _You're not the only one who can absorb mana._ "

He said it so calmly. As if that was it. That was the answer. Nothing else mattered. He was going to take Kenny's mana back from her. By force if necessary.

Unfurling his Lepidopterran wings, Devlin rushed Lightstar.

She wasn't expecting him to meet her on an even field and failed to throw up a shield in time. The Osmosian latched onto her wrists with two of his own hands and started to absorb the surplus of power coursing through her. She hissed in discomfort and tried to throw him off of her. But while Devlin was bulkier and heavier than her, he was also stronger and his grip did not break. He just kept absorbing mana.

The golden glow eventually faded and her skin, and eyes, and clothes all returned to their natural colors.

But Devlin was still latched onto her. He was still absorbing her energy. Now just the surplus she'd taken from Kenny anymore, but Lightstar's own natural power.

"'Star!" Sigil called to his sister. He lowered the mana bubble around himself and Ally and rushed to where the Osmosian was holding his sister to the floor.

Ally was right behind him, coming up on the sorcerer's side, she reached a hand out to Devlin as if to touch his shoulder, quickly thought better of the idea, and withdrew her hand. "Devlin..." she ventured, "...Devlin, we're good now. You can let Sigil's sister go."

When he didn't immediately do what she suggested, the Pyronite girl got worried. What if this turned into another thing like at the Rooter's base? What if Devlin was already to far gone. Drunk off energy and half mad. She already knew she couldn't take down an energy over-loaded Osmosian by herself. The only way they got him back under control back then was with Mr. Levin's help. But they'd left Kevin back at her dad's house and without a car. Even when he did realize they stole his car, how long would it take for him to follow them here?

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Ally tried one more time to reason with him. "You wanted to get Kenny's mana back for him, remember? You wanted to give it back to him. You can't do that if you're still holding onto Lightstar."

For half a second, Ally was afraid reasoning with him was just gonna be a total failure and that they would have to fight him too. Or, at least, stay alive long enough for her dad and Mr. Levin to show up and save them.

Then the Osmosian grit his teeth. Sharp, needle-like Piscciss Volann teeth barred in the effort to keep himself under control. "Just... just a bit more..."

She took a lot of energy from Kenny -more than actually showed. Devlin knew Anodites were made of pure energy. He was raised by an Anodite. He just never realized how much -how potent- _pure energy_ was. It was almost like the Omnitrix. Almost. Just short of it. Just barely enough for the Osmosian to hold onto enough of himself to remember what it was he was trying to do. He had a wider threshold for power thanks to his mother. Steeping in pure mana for a little short of nine months can do that to a fetus. But Devlin was skirting the edge of his threshold and he knew it. Just a bit more and he would loose everything. He was already fighting for control as it was.

Finally, he let Lightstar go.

She collapsed on the ground, unconscious, but otherwise unharmed.

Devlin stood.

Ally assumed a defensive stance. She didn't know if she was looking at her friend or a mindless monster that only knew hunger. "Devlin, are you... _you_?"

"Its..." He opened his mouth to speak, realized that he couldn't do both talk and keep control, and shut up again.

The Osmosian knelt next to his unconscious cousin and pulled his limp body into his arms. Kenny really did not look good. If Devlin didn't already know it was his cousin he was looking at, he would have thought the body in his lap was that of a feeble and malnourished old man. His hair had turned an unhealthy shade of gray, the skin of his face was pulled tight around the cheek bones, but was wrinkly and sagging from the cheeks themselves and the chin. He was pale and ashen. He looked like death.

Devlin took a breath, running through all the meditation techniques his mother had been trying to drill into him since he was old enough ot sit still and listen. Using one hand to support the unmoving body, he placed one Tetramand hand on Kenny's forehead and other on his chest. Then Devlin let the mana flow.

Like back when he took the surplus energy his mother gave him and channeled it into a padlock for safe keeping. A vessel to vessel transfer. It was difficult at first, but as more of Kenny's mana left his body, Devlin began to feel more like himself again. His control got better and he could move the mana faster.

And as the surplus of energy left him, his body began to revert back to his human shape.

Kenny blinked his eyes open and looked up at Devlin.

For a second the two started at each other. Then Kenny sat up too quickly, accedentlly butting his head with Devlin's.

"Lightstar! She's-! Ow!"

Both boys fell back away from each other.

Ally let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. "Well, looks like he's back to normal."

"Arg! What is your head made of!?" Devlin demanded.

Kenny wasn't listening. He grabbed his older cousin by the arms, as if they hadn't just spent the entire summer estranged from each other, and shouted. "Lightstar -she tried to eat me! I mean, absorb me. Just like you did and-" a pause. Kenny look down at the ends of his cousin's arms. "Uh, Dev, you're not wearing your gloves."

His look suddenly turned suspicious.

"Kenny, Devlin saved you." Ally informed the other boy. "He absorbed the energy Lightstar stole from you and gave it back. You'd be dead now if it wasn't for him."

He looked back at the older boy.

Devlin stood, avoiding eye-contact. "It doesn't matter."

He reached into a pocket of his proto-tech armor and pulled out his green gloves. Slipping them back on his hands, he turned his attention to something else. Anything else that would keep him from looking at his cousin. Devlin was afraid of still seeing rejection on the younger boy's face. After a fight like this -where he almost lost it again- he really didn't want to see that. His eye's fell on Sigil, leaning over his sister. She was an all around evil bitch, but she was still his sister. The Osmosian crossed the space between them.

"Want some help carrying her?" He offered. "I'm stronger than I look."

"You're a lot more than you look." Sigil replied, looking Devlin up and down, as if sizing him up. The Osmosian had to wonder what it was the sorcerer thought he saw. "You're the one who did this to her. Why should I let you touch her again?"

"First of all, I'm wearing my gloves now. So I'm not gonna be absorbing her any more." He held up his green covered hands for the other boy to see. "Secondly, I want to her to back to Ledgerdomain and away from my cousin as fast as possible. So you can trust that I'm not gonna be pulling any double crosses that'll keep you two here longer. And third, you don't look like you can lift much." A shrug. "But then, I don't look like I'm all that strong either. So maybe I'm wrong and you can carry her."

He turned to go back to Kenny and Ally.

"Wait." Sigil stopped him. "I'm sorry, nothing like this has ever happened to us before. I really just- -I still don't really get what's going on. I would appreciate a little help."

With a nod, Devlin knelt to lift Lightstar up off the floor and hefted her into his arms. "It figures you'd be hanging out with a bad guy." He told Sigil. "You're just to damn pretty to be good."

"You think I'm pretty?" The other boy asked, brushing a stray strand of silver-white hair back behind his ear.

Devlin quickly back-peddled. "I mean. I say lots of random stuff when coming down from an energy high. Don't pay attention to me."

The four of them -five if you count the unconscious Lightstar- exited the hydro-plant building.

-and immediately froze.

Standing outside, all lined up shoulder to shoulder, arms crossed as if in disappointment, were three adults.

"Kevin!" Devlin exclaimed.

"Dad!" Ally was taken aback.

"Uh... Skeletor?" Kenny ventured, not recognizing the third.

…


	9. Two Lampreys at Large

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Eight: Two Lamprays At Large

"Kevin!" Devlin exclaimed.

"Dad!" Ally was taken aback.

"Uh... Skeletor?" Kenny ventured, not recognizing the third.

The three adults were not amused.

Kevin crossed the space between him and Devlin. "Put her down!" A quick snarl of a command was the only warning the younger man got to pass the Lampray girl to her brother before the older Osmosian was grabbing him by the back of the neck -the back of the neck, not the collar of his proto-tech armor- and dragging him to the car. Kevin shoved his nose in the dent his body had made in the body, in the same way that someone might shove a dog's nose into a steaming pile of poop they'd left on a white shag carpet.

"Look at my car!" The older man snarled.

"You think I'm not upset about that either!?" Devlin whined back.

Pinching the bridge of his nose and groaning at the antics of the two Osmosians, Alan grabbed Kevin by the arm and turned him and his son back around to be facing the rest of the group. "As much as I know you love your car more than most people, I don't think that's really the thing to be focusing on right now."

Kevin turned back to glare at the other man, but then caught the odd way Darkstar was looking at the kids -all of the kids- and decided that maybe disciplining Devlin over getting the car damaged -and stealing it in the first place- could wait another hour or two. At least until there was no longer a fully matured adult Lampray staring at the children as if they were the most fascinating things he'd ever seen.

The kids must have noticed the way Darkstar was starring too, because the white haired boy that Kevin refused to remember the name of began to fidget uncomfortably under the scrutiny. You'd think he never met his father before, or something.

"C-can I help you with something?" Sigil asked, not really sure who this new, skeleton-faced person was or why Devlin and Ally's dads had brought him along with them. But he was still determined to be polite. The perfect, polite Prince of Ledgerdomain.

"Gabriel Morningstar." Darkstar breathed. As if he'd never seen the boy before in his life either.

The shock on Sigil's face could have stopped traffic if Kevin didn't already know it was coming.

"Do I know you?" No one outside of Ledgerdomain was supposed to know his and Lightstar's True Names. There weren't even that many _in_ Ledgerdomain that knew the True Names of the queen's children. The only one who lived on the Earthly plain that might know his and his sister's true names would be... "Are you..."

"Michael." He supplied.

"...our father." He looked down at his sister, still unconscious, partially supported in his arms, her legs dragging on the ground in front of him. This was a terrible first impression! "We, uh, we came to Earth to meet you. But we... kinda got side tracked."

Slowly, Devlin moved from his father's side back to the rest of the kids, to be closer to Kenny.

"That tends to happen when Tennysons or Levins are involved." The Lampray shot a curious glance at Devlin as the boy crept closer to his cousin. He had not forgotten Kevin's clear and explicit threat to crush his skull if he looked at the boy the wrong way, but he really had to know. Devlin Levin might be the son of Kevin 11,000, but he was also the son of the ever lovely and powerful Gwendolyn Tennyson -whom was an Anodite, a being made of pure mana. Had the young Devlin inherited his mother's mana along with his father's absorption? Was Devlin an Anodite too? If he was, that would certainly explain his own children getting 'side tracked'.

As if this meeting wasn't strange enough, Sigil couldn't help but notice that his father's eyes seemed more focused on Devlin Levin than himself and Lightstar. One would think that the man would be more interested in the children he'd had and been estranged from for the past sixteen years. But instead he was staring at some other kid he had nothing to do with as if he were a dish the older man just wanted to take a bite of.

Devlin seemed not to notice the attention he was getting. He placed himself in front of his cousin, between Kenny and the adult Lampray, with Ally still standing between them and Sigil.

That was when it hit him. That insane and nearly incomprehensible rant Devlin went on when he freaked out after learning that Darkstar -Michael- was their father. Lampray. Energy-leech. Kenny was made of mana. His father wasn't ignoring him and his unconscious sister -whom he still hadn't even asked about!- he was just focussing more of his attention on possible prey. That was also why Devlin moved back to be closer to his cousin. He didn't want to go through what they'd literally just resolved a second time -and after seeing how Lightstar went off the rails, and since Sigil didn't even know his father (technically) he perfectly understood the young Osmosian's motivation. Sigil didn't really wanna go through that a second time either.

Kevin placed a hand on the Lampray's shoulder. "Okay, Darkstar, thanks for showing us where the kids are. Your part here is done."

"So soon?" He tried for a friendly smile. Already too think lips stretching over his skeleton face, it made the friendly smile he was going for look strange. Disconcerting and uncomfortable. Wrong. Like the expression just couldn't make it over the Uncanny Valley. "But I've only just met your son. It would be rude not to at least say 'hello'."

Sigil was insulted! His father was more interested in meeting some other guy's kid than he and his sister! They were Darkstar's actual offspring. Shouldn't he be more interested in them? What did Devlin have that Sigil or Lightstar didn't have.

Devlin shifted his weight, preparing for an attack, being sure to keep himself between Darkstar and his cousin -the one whom actually was an Anodite. He slipped his gloves back off again, tucking the green fabric into a back pocket of his proto-tech armor.

There was a crackle of tension in the air that Sigil hadn't noticed earlier due to the shock of meeting his father for the first time. Now he realized that everyone -even the other adults that he brought him with them- were looking at the older Lampray as if he were an enemy.

Kevin's hand on Darkstar's shoulder tightened. Like, uncomfortably so. The Lampray hissed with discomfort as the Osmosian placed his other hand on the dented car and absorbed the bright green finish as armor. "Remember that little chat we had before coming here." He said. "About what would happen to you if you looked at my son the wrong way..."

His free hand morphed into a spiked mace.

Then Lightstar finally woke up.

With a groan that rolled through the tense air, the girl shifted in her brother's arms. Putting a hand to her head as if fighting off a headache, she opened her eyes, and blinked at everyone surrounding her. "What's going on now?"

That was the thing that finally drew Darkstar's attention away from Devlin. Sunken eyes softening at the sound of her voice. She stood on her own feet, pushing herself out of her brother's arms.

She had Charmcaster's chin and the shape of her eyes. But the cheekbones, the hair, and the eye-color were all his. She looked so much like him, Darkstar couldn't help the smile that pulled at his thin dry lips. Not that disconcerting Uncanny Valley smile he'd been giving earlier, but a real smile of true pleasure at seeing his child -the one whom had inherited his mutation, his true heir- awake and alert, and ready to learn how to hunt and use her powers. (Like he should have been teaching her all along if Hope hadn't gotten in the way.)

"Grace." He extended a hand to her.

Lightstar looked startled, taking a step back into her brother's arms. "He knows my True Name! How does he know my True Name?"

"That's our father." Sigil told her.

She looked up at her brother, as if not understanding. She always thought her father was supposed to be handsome. High cheekbones, chiseled chin, blue almond-shaped eyes, golden hair -like her's. Mom always said that she looked like her father. She was not expecting him to look like a reanimated corpse with one foot out of the grave. What could have caused him to look like that? Some kind of negative magical feedback? That was something her mother did always warn about.

Taking a tentative step closer to the older Lampray, she asked, "You're Darkstar? I'm Lightstar. Sigil and I were coming to meet you, but-" a glance over to where Devlin was standing in front of Kenny "-we got sidetracked."

"Sidetracked, huh..." Darkstar followed her gaze over to the young Osmosian. That was all the confirmation he needed that Gwen's son was, indeed, an Anodite like his mother.

He moved to take a half-step closer to the boy.

But Kevin yanked him back violently. Forcing the other man to the ground, he hover the spiked macing dangerously close to Darkstar's skeletal face. "What did I say!?"

The sudden and violent action startled everyone. But the first one to recover was Lightstar.

"Don't hurt him!" She snarled. After all, she and her brother defied their mother and snuck out of Ledgerdomain just for the chance to meet him.

Lightstar shot a spell that caught the Osmosian off guard in the back and he tumbled forward off of Darkstar, adding a dent of his own to the car when his face collided with it. "Sonofabitch!"

The Lampray climbed to his feet, this time ready to go on the offensive. He was done pretending to play nice with Kevin. Each and every time they teamed up one of them always double crossed the other. Well, Darkstar helped him and Albright find their kids, he was overdue now for his double cross. And with an Anodite as the prize... The Lampray licked his lips. True, Devlin wasn't the Anodite he would have ideally chosen, but mana was mana -and having the boy would inevitably bring the mother too.

"What was it you said you were going to do to me, Levin?" He taunted, crossing the space between him and the boys.

Devlin took a step forward to meet him head on. Rash, like his father. This would be easy.

"Ally, stay close to Kenny." The younger Osmosian muttered to the Pyronite girl.

"Right." She nodded her understanding. She saw first hand what a Lampray could do to him and what a Lampray could do after absorbing a surplus of mana. She did not want to have to fight that again -and on two fronts the second time. If her body weren't wreathed in molten flames hotter than the center of the Earth, she would have placed her hand on the dormant Anodite's shoulder. "Stick close, and try to stay out of the fight."

"What? Why?" Kenny blinked, glancing between both her and Devlin. Why were they treating him like a porcelain doll that needed to be protected all of a sudden. So, he got mostly absorbed and nearly died a little bit. It wasn't like that was the first time anything ever tried to absorb him! Besides, according to Ally, Devlin got all his energy back. He was fine now. Just fine! He could hold his own in a fight with two Lamprays -one of whom was nearly his girlfriend and the other that had years, upon years of experience fighting his father.

Nobody got the chance to answer him.

At that exact moment, Darkstar made a grab for Devlin. Latching his hand around the boy's exposed wrist. The Osmosian hissed in pain at feeling the tiny needly-like teeth of the sucker in his hand dug into his skin. But it was a superficial pain compared to what came next. No sooner had Darkstar touched the boy then he started trying to absorb him. Syphoning the boy's essence out of his body. It was like an oddly seductive pull and Devlin might have actually considered giving into it if he hadn't also been irrationally jealous. He was fairly certain it did not feel like that for the victim when he used his own powers of absorption on another living thing. That just wasn't fair!

But almost as soon as Darkstar started -he stopped.

The absorption halted and the teeth of his leech-like sucker withdrew. He stared at Devlin as if not understanding what it was he was seeing. Was he wrong? But he was the son of the Lovely Gwendolyn. Darkstar was so sure, but... "You're not an Anodite!"

"No." And Devlin hit him with a flat palm to the chest, putting most of the force into the heel of his hand. He sent the Lampray staggering backwards a few feet into his father whom had recovered from Lightstar's unexpected attack.

"I never actually said my son was an Anodite." Kevin kicked Darkstar's feet out from under him, grabbing the other man by a tuft of his dry, brittle, and sickly looking hair. "You made that assumption on your own." Tilting the Lampray's head back, Kevin morphed his free arm into a blade. A dangerously sharp looking curved number perfect for chopping off heads. "I told you no mask would be able to hide what I do to you..."

"Whoa! Kevin!" Devlin gaped at his father. Was he threatening to cut the other man's head off? Right here. In front of their friends and the man's own children. Devlin knew his father was a bad guy in the past. Kevin 11,000. The most feared and hated terrorist in the universe. But the young Osmosian had never actually seen it for himself. He was not expecting 'bad-guy-Kevin' to be so... _cold_.

"What?" Kevin looked up at his son, not quite understanding the objection. This wasn't all that different from when he paralyzed Servantis from the waist down. Then he realized how this might look. Him with one arm morphed into a large knife with Darkstar's head tilted back exposing his neck as if he were about to slit the man's throat or even to so far as to decapitate him entirely. "Oh. No. I was gonna do this."

He brought the blade hand down -not on Darkstar's neck- but on his hand instead. The same hand that he grabbed Devlin. The Lampray screamed in shock and pain. He'd never be able to absorb energy through that one again. And missing limbs were much harder to conceal than ugly faces. No mask would be able to hide what Kevin did to Darkstar.

Sigil blinked in disbelief, rooted to the spot in shock. "He cut his hand off!"

The Osmosian moved to take the other hand.

"No! Don't!" Lightstar cast a quick summoning spell and one of the stone creatures that populated Ledgerdomain appeared from out of nowhere and barreled into Kevin before he could take the Lampray's other hand.

It held the Osmosian down to the ground, squeezing the air out of him. He'd momentarily forgotten, Darkstar's kids were also Charmcaster's kids. While one or both of them might have inherited Darkstar's Lampray mutation, they had actually grown up in Charmcaster's magical realm, leaning combat spells, hexes, and summonings from the knee. Kevin was stupid not to expect something like this.

Lightstar ran over to her father and examined the bleeding stump of his arm. She cast another spell, enclosing the stump in glowing pink light that stopped the bleeding and knitted the wound shut. But his hand was gone. She didn't know a spell that could reattach severed flesh. She took stock of their surroundings.

Her father she'd defied her mother to come and find, and had only just met was injured. They were surrounded by hostile enemies. Her meal ticket Kenny was protected by a pissed off Osmosian and Pyronite girl. And her brother was off to the side watching with a shocked dumb expression of his face being passive and useless. Golden eyebrows coming down over cobalt blue eyes, Lightstar realized she had to get herself and her father out of here. Away from these people. She knew the spell to do it, she'd just have one major bitch of a headache afterward.

Let Sigil deal with the rest of them. Let him deal with Mom's inevitable wrath afterward too. He was her favorite anyway.

Raising her arms over her head, Lightstar began the spell. Gathering her magic in a swirling spiral around herself and Darkstar.

"She's rabbiting!" Kevin called from where he was still held down by Lightstar's stone creature.

He probably meant for one of them to stop her. But Devlin recognized the spell too and the last time it had been preformed and someone tried to yank the spell caster out of it, Kenny got splinched. The young Osmosian did not want a repeat of that episode, so he kept his feet rooted to the spot, just starring at Lightstar as she cast her spell.

Before she and Darkstar blinked off the scene, the last thing she did before the magic closed in around her was make eye-contact with Kenny. Delicious, delicious Kenny. She might not have had him all to herself today. She might have only gotten a taste of his delectable mana, but she promised herself, she'd get another chance. One way or another, she would get Kenny and his delecacy of power. "Be seeing you."

The boy shrunk away.

Lightstar and Darkstar vanished into pink air.

As soon as she was gone, the stone creature restraining Kevin crumbled into an inert and mundane pile of stones. The only indication that they were not part of the native terrain was the fact that they were a slightly darker color than the ground around them. Kevin climbed out from under the pile of rock and dusted himself off. "Kriffin' Darkstar. I swear-!"

Alan cleared his throat.

Kevin turned to look at the other adult, but the Pyronite wasn't looking at him, he was glaring at the kids. All of them. His own daughter, Devlin and Kenny, and -yes- even Darkstar's son that they had left behind.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Alan raised his chin. "First person to start explaining gets a slightly reduced punishment."

Kenny, Devlin, and Ally all started talking at once.

…


	10. Resolution

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Branch

Chapter Nine: Resolution

Sigil found himself, once again, with his hands duct taped together. Devlin's father -a truly terrifying man- had inspected his hands the same as Devlin had done not long after Lightstar abandoned him -abandoned him! and they'd been together since forever!- and the older Osmosian had found the exact same amount of nothing that Devlin had found earlier. Sigil tried to explain to them that he hadn't inherited the mutation from his father -only Lightstar had. He didn't crave mana like she did. He didn't feed off mana like she did. He was perfectly harmless.

Except that Mr. Levin also seemed to take issue with the fact that he was Charmcaster's son as well and still refused to trust him even after it was well established that he wasn't going to be attacking or absorbing anyone.

Thus, the duct tape again.

Devlin, Kenny, and Ally tried to give some version of an explanation for why they stole the car, took off with two people they'd only just met, and drove to a place they knew was dangerous for them. But with all three of them talking at once, the adults became very frustrated very quickly and decided to hold all explanations and reprimands until they were all back at Mr. Albright's farm.

Kenny and Ally rode with Mr. Albright.

Devlin and Sigil went in Kevin's dented muscle car. (And wasn't that just one more thing the Osmosian was pissed about!)

The sorcerer rested his bound hands in his lap and sighed in an attempt to hide the fact that his eyes were watering. "I can't believe she left me."

There was a pregnant pause in which nobody really knew what to say to that. Should they comfort the boy because he'd just been betrayed and abandoned by his family? Or, tell him 'touch luck', that's what you get when you try and expect anything from a Lampray. Then again, were Lampray all that different from Osmosians. When Devlin absorbed the faux-Omnitrix and went mad with hunger, chasing Kenny down intent on devouring his mana... was he really any different from Lightstar in that moment?

"'Star and I have always been together." Sigil lifted his bound hands to his eyes, no longer trying to hide the fact that he was hurt and was crying.

That struck a cord with Devlin. He and Kenny had also always been together up until the fiasco with the Rooters.

Ally had been trying to get the young Osmosian to empathize with the sorcerer from the moment they learned his father was Darkstar. After all, they were both boys raised by their mothers, were the son's of villains, never met their father's until they were in their teens... Objectively, they really did have a lot in common. But it wasn't until Sigil was abandoned by his sister -someone that had been present in his life for as long as he could remember- that Devlin really started to feel like they could be kindred spirits.

With a sigh of his own, the Osmosian gave the sorcerer a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

Confused, Sigil looked at the green-gloved hand on his shoulder, then up to the person it belonged to.

"Kenny..." Devlin began, "...my cousin that I've been trying so hard to protect this whole time... He and I haven't spoken in three months."

"Oh." The other boy didn't know what to say to that, so he looked away. Out the window at the fields passing by outside. They were off the main highway now and back in farm country. They must be getting close to Mr. Albright's farm.

"What I mean is," the Osmosian attempted to elaborate, "I have an idea of what you might be going through right now because I've been there. It sucks. You feel betrayed, and confused, and you don't really understand why. You just wish everything could go back to the way it was before this all started. You wish you never even had the idea to cross dimensional barriers in the first place."

"It was her idea." He corrected.

"What?" Delvin blinked. He was actually thinking of himself and his idea of taking Servantis back to his base in the Null Void and joining the Rooters. He wished he'd never crossed the dimension barriers in the first place. He was just talking and not really paying attention to what he was saying.

"Lightstar was the one who had the idea to come here and look for out father." Sigil explained. "She'd been having trouble lately..." he paused to consider his words. "...She would get these cravings. Ledgerdomain is full of mana, but it wasn't enough for her. It wasn't the same as what she wanted. She couldn't just be satisfied with pulling energy out of the air, she wanted living mana. Life energy from another living thing. I overheard Mom talking once about our father and how he had similar cravings and 'Star thought we should find him and get his help. She's really not a bad person..."

He trailed off.

In the driver's seat, Kevin adjusted the rearview mirror so that he could look the young sorcerer in the eyes. "Kid, she left you at the mercy of your dad's enemies and took off with a guy neither of you even know. She's not nice. She used you."

"But-" Sigil began an argument. "-she's my sister."

"And?" Kevin asked, raising one ebony eyebrow.

"And-" the boy paused "-and we're twins..."

Kevin did not look impressed. Devlin patted him on the shoulder again. The car once again lapsed into silence until they pulled into the driveway of the Albright farm. "We're here."

Kenny's mother, Kai, was in by the time they arrived and she was already giving her son a chewing out. About how he should have told her was going out, how stupid it was of him to steal Kevin 11,000's car -that's your father's influence! I don't know what Ben thinks he's doing!- how disappointed she was in him for just taking off with strangers -did I never warn you about strangers!?- Kevin was very impressed by just how terrifying she managed to be without the need to brandish weapons or make actual threats.

Devlin came up to defend his cousin.

"Aunt Kai, that wasn't Kenny's fault." He told her. "He was seduced by an evil Lampray girl who-."

She focused her dark eyes on the young Osmosian and Delvin instantly regretted every decision he'd ever made in his life, staring with standing up for his cousin. She indicated the couch where there was just enough room next to Kenny for the other boy to sit down. "I'll deal with you in a moment."

Devlin sat down instantly. Not daring to make her anger any worse.

Lifting her eyes from the boys, Kai fixed a dark-eyed glare on Kevin. "And you...!"

The Osmosian paused, not sure if it was him she meant. He and Sigil both pointed identically confused fingers at themselves, their mouths forming silent 'me?s.'

Stepping around the couch, Kai walked right up to the older Osmosian, not in the least bit intimidated by the fact that she was invading the personal space of the infamously terrible and deadly Kevin 11,000. "Have you ever heard of a phone? Do you not have a phone? Does Devlin not have a phone that you can use? Did you not think to call ahead and tell someone that you and Devlin were visiting? Did neither you or Alan think to call me when you realized the children had disappeared?"

Kevin suppressed the urge to growl back at her. "I was more focused on making sure they were safe."

"Part of making sure they're safe is also making sure the other adults in their lives know where they are!" Kai shot back at him, not missing a beat -almost as if she's had to deal out this lecture before. "Have you even called Gwendolyn since coming here? Because she called me asking why she couldn't reach her son on his cell about this one?" She jabbed a finger at Sigil. "Do you even know how to get in contact with his mother and let her know that her son is alight? Does his mother even know he's here?" Kai huffed, massaging the sides of her head in what he assumed was a not-uncommon gesture for her. "I swear. You're just like Ben! No wonder you're friends."

"Hey, don't compare me to Tennyson!" The Osmosian was insulted. "We're nothing alike."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Kai lifted her chin at him skeptically. She was not impressed. "Oh, really? Because from where I'm standing, the only significant difference between you is that Ben's a little bit shorter. Honestly, I don't know how Gwendolyn puts up with you. Crap like this is exactly the reason I left Ben!"

"Aunt Kai!" Devlin shot back up from the couch. He made eye-contact with her, then tilted his head to indicate Kenny still sitting on the couch, his shoulders tense as he slouched into the cushions. Kenny hated it when his parents fought. Nothing made him more uncomfortable or more insecure. Devlin had his thing about being the son of Kevin 11,000 and Kenny's thing was watching his parents fight -or in this case listen to his mother harp on about how terrible, and irresponsible, and incompetent his father was.

Kai -unlike Ben- was not oblivious to her son's emotional sensitivity. She nodded at Devlin's warning and grabbed Kevin by the arm. "We'll continue this outside!"

She dragged the older Osmosian out.

Devlin flopped back down on the couch next to his cousin.

"Thank you." Kenny muttered, not making eye-contact with the older boy.

"We look out for each other, Kenny." Devlin replied, also not looking at his cousin. "Its what we do."

Ally glanced at the pair, realizing that that was the first exchange they'd said to each other without being prompted or forced by someone else, she did not want to ruin the moment. The Pyronite girl -very carefully and slowly, so as not to distract the boys- got up from the couch, grabbed Sigil by the arm and dragged the other boy out of the living room to give the cousins their privacy.

"You really looked out for me today." Kenny commented, still not looking at the Osmosian. "Thank you." A pause. "And thanks for not keeping my energy either."

That was when Devlin looked at him, his green eyes wide with a insult. He would never keep Kenny's life-force! But then, he remembered his behavior at the Rooters' base and reassessed himself. Under different circumstances, he would have kept Kenny's mana, and after his cousin was drained maybe go after his mother or Uncle Ben's Omnitrix as well. The Osmosian returned his eyes to the floor without saying a word.

"I just don't understand." Kenny continued, also speaking to the floor and not to the boy next to him. "Why? Why does everyone want my energy? At the Rooters you only focused on me, even thought Aunt Gwendolyn was there too and she's an Anodite. Shouldn't you have wanted her instead? And Lightstar! She wasn't going for the Omnitrix. She went straight for me. She wanted me! My energy! Not my watch's. _Why!? What's so special about me!?_ "

"You really don't know." Devlin concluded. He knew Kenny must not have known. If he had known, he would have told Devlin as soon as he found out. Before the incident with the Rooters they were closer than brothers, they told each other everything. Kevin theorized that Kenny didn't know because Uncle Ben gave him a copy of the Omnitrix and so his Anodite abilities never had the opportunity or need to be awakened. Kenny really didn't know.

"No! I don't know!" Snapped the younger boy. "That's why I want you to tell me!"

Someone had to tell him. " _You're an Anodite, Kenny_."

It was low, sober, deadpan.

There was a beat of silence.

Then, "No... Aunt Gwendolyn is an Anodite."

"You're also an Anodite." Insisted the Osmosian. Osmosians were sort of the un-official experts on Anodites. They were their ideal prey after all.

Kenny crossed his arms over his chest and glared skeptically at his cousin. "I think I would know if I was an Anodite."

"My mom didn't know she was an Anodite for a really long time." Devlin reminded him. "Even after her magic awakened."

"I don't have magic." The younger boy pointed out.

The Osmosian was about to argue back that his cousin's magic hadn't awakened yet, but then he remembered that this was Kenny. They could go back and forth for hours. Kenny didn't learn well just being told. Kenny had to be shown. So, Devlin decided to do something stupid -stupid because he was still trying to earn back the younger's boy's trust.

Devlin reached into his shirt and pulled out a chain, on the end of which was a padlock. He held the lock up so that Kenny could see it.

"This has mana in it." He said. He then took off the chain and set it aside on the coffee table. Then he took off one of his gloves. Hesitated. Then grabbed Kenny by the hand. "You know I don't have mana of my own. I expelled all the mana I absorbed from my mom when I was eleven."

Kenny's eyes darted down to their joined hands. Then slowly looked back up at the older boy, suspicious. "Yeah...?"

Hesitating again, Devlin paused. Really considering what he was about to do. It was a bit extreme just to prove a point. But Kenny needed to believe him. He needed to know what he was. Even if his mana never really awoke and he was never able to access his Anodite powers, even if he only ever used the Omnitrix for the whole of his life. He still needed to know what he was. If for no other reason than to be on his guard. Anodites were prey for a very specific type of predator. Lamprays, and Osmosians, and even Synthroid. Ones that stole energy.

"There is no Anodite power in my body." He wanted to make sure he was absolutely clear. Closing his eyes -Devlin didn't want to look at his cousin when he did this- he absorbed just a bit of his mana. Just a bit! Not very much at all. Really. Just enough to make one small mana-orb.

Kenny pulled away instantly. Climbing -falling- off the opposite side of the couch and backing away 'crab style' on his hands. "What the hell!?"

Devlin held up his arm -which was also halfway transformed between human and Tetramand- and collected all the traces of mana he'd just absorbed from Kenny in his palm, forming one small orb of glowing star sapphire light. "Look at this, Kenny."

Eyes wide, the younger boy gaped at the Osmosian, and Devlin wasn't sure if his shocked, open mouthed expression was because he didn't believe that the mana Devlin was holding came from him, of he felt betrayed all over again because Devlin just absorbed him a second time.

"This is _your_ mana." The Osmosian informed him. "I got this from you. Just now. You're an Anodite."

Slowly -cautiously- Kenny crawled back onto the couch, eyes focused on the orb of mana, not the boy holding it. "That came from me?"

"Yes." Devlin confirmed.

The younger boy stared at it mesmerized for a moment, then blinked, still disbelieving. "But I can't be an Anodite. I've never shown any signs of having magic."

Devlin released the orb, allowing the mana to be diffused into the air where it would either return to Kenny on its own- or not, he wasn't too sure on that detail.

"Kevin has a theory about that." He said. "My mom's powers awakened when she was young because she was put into a lot of dangerous situations where she had to defend herself. Her mana awakened out of necessity. But you've been pretty sheltered and safe most of your life. When you were the same age my mom was when she awakened, Uncle Ben gave you an Omnitirix, so whenever you were in danger you would use that. There was never any need for your powers to come out, so they stayed dormant."

Kenny thought about that. He still looked skeptical, but was coming around to the truth. "I'm... an Anodite..."

"Yes." Confirmed the Osmosian.

The other boy leaned back and sighed. Almost sinking into the couch with the weight of the revelation.

"Whoa."

"I know..." Devlin muttered indignantly -almost resentfully.

"That's crazy." Kenny commented.

And unfair.

Devlin didn't say it out loud, but he was thinking it. The younger boy always got all the best stuff. He was the son of a hero, while Devlin had to come to terms with being the spawn of a villain. Kenny got an Omnitirx that could transform him safely and completely into one fully formed alien, while Devlin only got a conglomeration of incomplete parts from ten different aliens. Now his cousin was an Anodite too, and Devlin was still stuck with the same crappy Osmosian power set he was born with (plus the ability to walk through walls, but that was insignificant compared to being an Anodite, so it didn't count).

"But wait!" Kenny sat back up, bolt upright. "That doesn't make any sense!" He looked at the older boy. "Your mom's an Anodite, neither of my parents are Anodites. If either of us was gonna be an Anodite, shouldn't it be you?"

'Should' and 'are' were two very different things.

Devlin agreed, he _should_ have been the Anodite -he certainly had the studious disposition for it- but he wasn't. He was Osmosian and that was all. The older boy would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous. So, instead he explained. "Neither your parents or grandparents are Anodites, no." He agreed. "But our great-grandmother, Verdona, is an Anodite. Yeah, it skipped a couple of generations with Uncle Ben and Great-Uncle Carl. But mana doesn't really follow the conventional rules of genetics. Some things are inherited through the soul."

"Huh." Kenny shrugged.

"It certainly explains why you're so hyper some times." Devlin added with a half-hearted laugh, trying to add a little levity to the revelation. "Being a being made of _pure energy_."

The younger boy seemed unaffected by this statement. He was still looking at his cousin. "Dev... are you mad?"

"About what?" The Osmosian stretched his mouth into an ignorant smile.

"Dev-" a pause "-you hate your power-set. I know you do. You always have. You hate having Kevin's powers. I know you wish you could have had Aunt Gwendolyn's instead. I might not know how to access them, but now we find out that I have her powers instead. That's... that's gotta upset you. So, are you mad? Is that... is that why you tried to absorb me back at the Rooters' base?"

That forced smile of melted into one of mild -oddly melancholy- amusement. "Uh, no. I tried to absorb you because I OD'd on to much energy and went crazy. The fact that I'm also jealous had nothing to do with it."

"So you are jealous."

"Hard not to be."

"I'm sorry." Kenny muttered, eyes back to the ground.

"For something you have no control over?" Devlin looked at him.

"Because it upsets you."

Heaving a sigh, the Osmosian got up off the couch and knelt in front of his cousin. "Kenny, who am I?"

The younger boy blinked at him, confused. "Wut?"

Devlin continued to stare up at him. "I am the son of the most famous and hated terrorist in the universe. I'm Devlin E. Levin. Fake-Tennyson. Baby 11,000. I can't help it. I have no control over it. I didn't get to choose who my father is. I have been apologizing to the world for something I have no control over my whole life. So, please, listen to me when I tell you: _don't you start_!"

Now Kenny got it. Devlin could see the recognition in his eyes. Emerald eyes identical to his own.

"Am I jealous that you have the powers I've always wanted instead of the powers that I've got?" Continued the Osmosian. "Yes. Have I spent this past summer secretly cursing the universe and my lot in life? Yes. Am I mad at _you_ because of it? No. Because I know you didn't ask for it. You didn't know about it. And you have no control over it. And, as someone who has built an _identity_ around apologizing for something I have no control over, let me tall you: it sucks. It makes you anxious all the time! You get sensitive about the most random stuff. You're insecure around people you want to like you... _Its exhausting!_ So, listen to me when I tell you, don't start! There's not enough room in this family for two angst-whores, and I was here first!"

"Dev... I had no idea."

"I know." Nodded the older boy. He rose from his kneeling position and flopped back down on the couch next to his cousin. "And now that you know you're an Anodite, I'll understand if you're still afraid of me -or even more afraid of me. Osmosians are kinda your natural predator -one of your natural predators. I, uh, I've been texting my mom and we've agreed. It- it would be better if we went to different schools this year. She always wanted me to go to her old school anyway. The only reason she enrolled me in Bellwood Public was because we wanted to be together. Since we're not as close as we used to be, there's no reason for us to stay in the same school. In September I'll be attending Bellwood Prep."

"What?" Kenny blinked. "You don't have to do that!"

The Osmosian smiled again, that same gentle, melancholy number. "You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that, Kenny. But its already been decided. Beside, it might be good for us. Ya know, gain a little distance and perspective, or whatever."

"You didn't get enough distance and perspective this past summer apart?" Asked the younger boy.

"Did you?" The older one shot back.

Kenny looked at his hands as if not really seeing them. To be completely honest -no. Up until a few hours ago he had no perspective and was still trying to distance himself from his Osmosian cousin. "But we'll still be living together, right?" He asked finally. "You're just going to a different school. Kevin and Aunt Gwendolyn aren't moving out right?"

"To the best of my knowledge, we're staying at Headquarters." Devlin confirmed.

"Because I know Dad and Grandpa Max have been nagging Kevin to get a real job. I just- I don't want to never see you again!"

"Moron, we're family. Of course we'll still see each other. Even if my parents and I did move out." Devlin shook his head at the absurdity of the idea. That was classic Kenny right there. It almost felt like things were back to normal between them. Almost.

"Its just..." Kenny paused, thought about his words, continued. "I've been afraid of you these past few months Dev. And I've been mad at you because of it. I've been pushing you away and- -and I haven't seen you in so long! Now I know why! I get it now! I'm sorry it took me so long but, I understand why you tried to absorb me! Now I want us to go back to the way things were!"

"We will." Devlin promised. "Eventually."

They both had things to work through on both their ends. Trust and jealousy. The things people don't like to talk about openly but that can make a relationship tense.

"Promise?" Kenny pressed.

"Promise." Devlin agreed.

…

With none of the adults present being magic users, and therefore not knowing how to contact Charmcaster to come and pick up her wayward son, Kevin was forced to call Gwendolyn, explain to her what had happened, and ask her to come down and help them get the young sorcerer home safely.

Kai made a point of making Kevin the one to do it in the hopes that the High Magus -and his unofficial wife- would be more effective in driving home the point of just how irresponsible he was. Then again, Gwendolyn lived with Ben and had been an influence on his life for his whole life, and look how irresponsible and bad of a parent he was. Maybe both men were just lost causes. Gwendolyn was powerful, but she worked magic, not miracles.

While the Osmosian sputtered his excuses in between explanations over his phone -which Kai was amazed to learn both worked and was charged- she called her delightful ex-husband to give him a pice of her mind.

"...Didn't you think the fact that Kenny's an Anodite is something you should have told me! Don't you think that's something his mother might need to know!" She roared into the phone. "What do you mean you have no idea what I'm talking about!? You live with him most of the year! Don't give me that! Both Devlin and Kevin knew -and Kevin only just _met_ him a few months ago! Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about! Anodite comes from _your_ side of the family! Can't you guys sense each other or something!?"

There was so much negativity in the air, Devlin could feel the static like a prickling on his skin.

Sigil sidled up next to the Osmosian, meek and unsure. Almost vulnerable. "My sister and I never actually told our mother we were leaving the realm. I, uh, I don't know how mad she's going to be. She can be kinda scary when she's angry."

"My mom too." Devlin agreed.

There was an awkward pause.

Sigil shuffled his feet. Cleared his throat. Opened his mouth to speak. Closed it again.

"We, uh, we've got a lot in common, you and I." He said at last, sounding about as awkward and his body language was showing he felt.

"Yeah. We do." Devlin agreed. Then, more as a joke than anything else, "Maybe we're soul mates."

The white-haired boy look pleasantly startled by that suggestion, then smiled a hesitant and unsure smile.

"I uh... I'd like to see you again, Devlin." Sigil tentatively reached out for the Osmosian's gloved hand. He hesitated for a second, pulling away again when their fingers met. Then screwed up his resolve and grabbed the other boy's hand holding it between them. "That is, if you'd like to see me too."

It took Devlin much, much longer than it should have to realize what the other boy was asking. He looked at their joined hands and the open and vulnerable expression on Sigil's face. He was so handsome! Devlin thought he was handsome from the first moment he saw the other boy, but he ignored the feeling because the people that he liked never liked him back and that was just a fact of life.

"You want to see me?" Asked the Osmosian.

"Yes." Sigil confirmed.

"And I'll be seeing you."

"Yes..." Now the sorcerer was a little confused. Was he not clear in what he was asking?

"So, we'll be seeing each other." Devlin finally concluded in a quiet tone of disbelief.

"Yes." Sigil confirmed.

"I'd like that." And the Osmosian smiled a goofy, happy smile he didn't even know he was capable of.

…

END

(A/N 1: Anyone who has a problem with Devlin being gay can just go ahead and unfollow me now. In fact, anyone who has a problem with gay characters as main characters should just unfollow me.)

(A/N 2: Now that the obligatory warning to the homophobe snowflakes is out of the way... the next installment in this series is gonna get weird. I don't really wanna give away spoilers, but... anyone ever seen the anime "Revolutionary Girl Utena"? -The series, not the movie.- If you have, recall if you will season two... That's all I'm gonna say. I probably won't start it right away since I have so many other fics to finish. But be aware, it is in 'pre-production'. Look for "Rose", coming to a fan fic site near you! )


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